The Village
by SpatulaCastle
Summary: While on a camping trip with Ichigo and Rukia, Karin and Yuzu are lured into an old village by a crimson butterfly. Spoilers for Arrancar Arc and FFII
1. Chapter One

Obligatory Author's Note: I am not a fast writer. I could even sit down at my computer, bazillions of ideas for the next chapter in my head, and not type a single sentence because I blank out. Why? I haven't the damndest clue. However, not that I'm insinuating anything, the more helpful reviews I get the faster I seem to go. Maybe I have a complex…hmm.

Never heard of/played Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly? For shame! However, knowledge of Fatal Frame is not necessary to enjoy this story. In fact, it just might add more suspense.

Disclaimer: Did you know that these things won't do you an ounce of good? I can still be easily sued, disclaimer or not, by Tite Kubo (Bleach) or Tecmo (Fatal Frame) so instead I will use this time to ask them out of the kindness of their hearts to not sue me.

**The Village**

**Chapter One**

_"I've heard rumors about the lost village before. Long ago, a massacre occurred on the day of a ceremony, and the village was wiped from the map. Twin Deities Statues in the forest lead lost people to the village entrance. Once you passed the gate however, you cannot go back."_

_ - Miyako Sudo_

Dawn slowly crept up on the town of Karakura, the warm rays of the sun gently stirring the birds to wakefulness and giving them reason to sing the announcement of Saturday's arrival. The freshly gathered dew glistened brilliantly on the town's greenery while the flowers began their slow unfurling to gather in warmth from the sky. The forecast had called for a temperate, cloudless, spring day that was expected of a weekend and all of Karakura basked in the peace it had created that morning. Or at least, those lucky many that were not being given their wake up call by Isshin Kurosaki

"GOOD MOOORNING, ICHIGOOOOO!"

Ichigo, with practiced finesse, rolled over in his bed to prevent his face from being smashed in by his father's elbow. With equal ease, the teenage boy gripped the older man's shirt collar in his fist and casually tossed him into the opposing wall. Isshin sank pitifully to the floor, twitching when he landed in a heap on the carpet. "I'm proud…my son…" he ground out painfully.

Sighing irritably with the knowledge that any further attempts at sleep would be denied, Ichigo sat up in his bed yawning and stretching. Knowing that questioning the motives of the slightly deranged man would only end up encouraging his irritating behavior – he was still too tired to endure that sort of punishment – Ichigo cut straight to the chase. "What do you want, old man?" He asked, tiredly scratching his head.

Suddenly regaining his strength, Isshin leapt to his feet. "Can a father not greet his only son, the fruit of his loins, on such a glorious day!?" He bellowed loudly, moving into what Ichigo suspected was a fighting stance; at least, that was his excuse for promptly flinging his father down the stairs before slamming the door shut. Grumbling random words under his breath, Ichigo decided he might as well get dressed before his father could initiate a second assault.

As most might have probably guessed at this point, Ichigo Kurosaki was not a normal adolescent. His father was a certifiable nut – and a doctor to boot – his eleven year old, twin sisters were the only things keeping any semblance of peace in the family, and the only presence of his mother was a giant memorial poster that had been hanging on the dining room wall since her death nearly seven years ago. Ichigo also had to deal with bullies on numerous occasions because of his bright, spiky orange hair, despite the fact that he was unusually tall for his age and a menacing glare often beset his russet eyes. The other reason for his lack of normality was not one that most people knew about.

Ichigo Kurosaki had the ability to see ghosts.

The ability was one he had possessed for a long time and it was one that indirectly helped cause the death of his mother. It was an ability that had always been both a blessing and a curse. When he was younger, he was able to find friends within the spirit community when those of the living wouldn't as much as look at him without malice or suspicion. Unfortunately, he also received his share of the plainly irritating ghosts that latched onto him like leeches and refused to let go until they managed to pass on. The main misfortune of his ability, however, was the _other_ types of spirits his unique power attracted.

Hollows.

They were once normal spirits that lingered too long in this world, until their pain and grief ate out their very hearts and transformed them into monsters that fed on the souls of the living and dead alike. Like a moth to a flame, they were drawn to Ichigo and his family who would have been powerless to protect themselves had the fifteen year-old not possessed another unusual trait. It was a power that no other living human being had; a power that had been granted to him nearly a year ago when a dark haired girl in a black shihakusho with a katana tucked into her obi had stumbled into his room one night to exorcise a spirit that had been following him around. Not even an hour later, he was the one wearing the shihakusho and wielding a sword.

He had become a Shinigami.

In what he had been certain would be the last moments of his life, the girl had stepped in and ended up mortally wounded in order to save him from being devoured. Too injured to continue fighting, she had temporarily passed her powers on to Ichigo in a move that nearly ended up costing her life. Needless to say, his newfound abilities didn't end up being quite as temporary as they both originally thought and he somehow found himself helping the Soul Society in a war against a powerful man that had betrayed the Gotei 13 to form a powerful army of Arrancar. One way or another, the female Shinigami that should only have been part of a week or two out of his entire life now resided in his sister's room for an undetermined amount of time nearly a year after she had first stepped into his home.

Just as Ichigo finished pulling on a plain white t-shirt and started adjusting the belt on his jeans, said Shinigami had knocked sharply on his door and waited for his consent before stepping inside. "Isshin-dono wanted to talk to you downstairs."

Rukia Kuchiki was a rather unusual person herself. First of all, she wasn't actually alive and the only reason that normal people could see her was the fact that she inhabited a fake body – a gigai. Another oddity about her was that she looked so exceedingly normal that it was abnormal. Her hair was ebony colored and cut just above her shoulders like a typical Japanese school girl, her eyes were an ordinary cobalt blue, and her cerulean dress was plain and simple. She was fairly scrawny, barely taller than Ichigo's eleven year old sisters, and looked as though if you sneezed at her too hard she just might break a bone. No one in their right mind would ever mistake her for a 150 year-old that could cut down towering monsters in a matter of seconds without so much as wrinkling her clothes in the process.

But that was precisely what she was.

"You don't have to call him that. Isshin-teme is more like it," Ichigo grumbled, sitting down in his swivel chair to pull on a pair of socks.

Rukia frowned at him. "It's not very respectful."

"No, but it suits him better. What the hell does he want anyway? Why didn't he just come up here himself?"

"Apparently, he didn't enjoy being thrown down the stairs."

Ichigo stood up and absently scratched the back of his head. "Never stopped him before," he muttered, leaving the room with Rukia in tow. He was hardly looking forward to whatever his peculiar father had to say to him but decided he might as well get it over with as soon as possible.

The moment he had cleared the stairwell, Ichigo fully expected to be on the receiving end of a roundhouse kick and was completely shocked when no such thing happened. In fact, his father was sitting (relatively) calmly at the dining room table, scarfing down his breakfast as if his life depended on it. Yuzu and Karin, Ichigo's younger sisters, had also already taken their place at the table and were consuming their breakfast at a leisurely pace. Yuzu, the elder of the twins, had donned a pale yellow dress with a faint, pink flower print sprawling out across the cloth and had clipped a dark brown barrette in her hair to prevent her short auburn bangs from falling into her honey colored eyes. Karin wore her usual red cap, black spandex shorts and a white t-shirt with a football printed on the front while her pitch black hair was left to fall haphazardly to her shoulders.

According to Isshin's announcement on Friday, the three should have been gone by now.

Yesterday, Yuzu and Karin had been assigned an insect collecting assignment and when the former had unwisely mentioned this to their father he had insisted upon a 'family-outing-slash-school-assignment-camping-extravaganza' that would span the entire weekend and involved staying the night out in some god forsaken woods. He had planned to leave early on Saturday morning and return Sunday evening which was why Ichigo was surprised that none of them had left yet. Of course, he and Rukia had managed to skillfully duck out of the entire arrangement by the irrefutable excuse of uncompleted homework assignments. Camping wasn't exactly one of Ichigo's favorite things to do and Rukia didn't even know what camping was.

Much to the displeasure of everyone in the room, Isshin saw fit to spit out his current mouthful of food the moment he had spotted Ichigo while he was rushing to get his next words out. "Pack your things, Ichigo, you're taking your sisters camping!" Ichigo's jaw promptly dropped and any words he might have spoken promptly choked him (and would have fallen on deaf ears anyway.) Isshin quickly turned to his daughters, suddenly teary-eyed. "Daddy is sorry for disappointing you, but the clinic was flooded with patients last night from a huge car accident."

Ichigo's mouth promptly snapped shut and he gulped before sharing a quick glance with Rukia, both of them having witnessed that car 'accident' up close when they were fighting an Arrancar and things had gotten a little out of hand.

Yuzu immediately leapt from her seat, "But Otousan, don't you need our help?"

"Ah, my sweet Yuzu…what a kind offer," Isshin sobbed melodramatically, rivers of tears flooding from his eyes. "But, I cannot ask you to stay for me. Your grades depend on it."

"But…"

"You must go Yuzu, or Daddy will cry and cry and never stop!" Isshin wailed pathetically. Karin shook her head in disbelief, Ichigo stared blankly, and Rukia looked rather perplexed. "At the very least, you'll be able to bond with your siblings."

Only Yuzu bought into his act – though it could have easily been the fact that she had a soft spot for the old man. "Don't cry, Otousan, I'll go if you really want me to."

Just like a faucet, the tears were immediately turned off. "Alright then! Ichigo! Quit being a slowpoke! Go pack!"

"I have homework that needs to be done too, you know." This statement wasn't entirely true. Ichigo did have homework – easy homework that wasn't even due until Tuesday – but he couldn't exactly tell his dad he had to stay behind in case a monster tried to kill all of his friends _again_.

Isshin waved off his son, "You're grades aren't nearly as important. Now pack or I'll make you go naked!" Not doubting his father's word for a second – and deciding he wouldn't mind a weekend away from his father – Ichigo begrudgingly headed upstairs to pack his things.

When he returned, he was surprised for some reason that Rukia – who was just polishing off her breakfast – had not done the same and looked like she had no inclination to follow him. It was strange because for the longest time, he couldn't get her to _not_ follow him. Before he could even stop the words, he asked, "You aren't coming?"

Her head immediately snapped up, and Ichigo wished he hadn't asked at all. Of course Rukia had planned on staying. The only reason she was even on Earth was to prevent the Arrancar attacks which, so far, had been partial to Karakura. Suddenly thinking of leaving Rukia by herself to defend his town for a weekend made him uneasy and almost glad he had opened his big mouth. "Oh, no, I couldn't possibly intrude on your family bonding," Rukia insisted sweetly. It was, of course, entirely the wrong thing to say.

Yuzu's eyes grew shiny with unshed tears. "But…you _are_ family now Rukia-neesan! I don't want you to feel left out, please come with us!" And because it was doubtful that even Byakuya himself would be able to resist Yuzu's hopeful, teary-eyed expression, Rukia had no choice but to acquiesce. And with that, Isshin promptly packed them all onto a bus and sent them out into the wilderness, effectively leaving the protection of Karakura to three of its residents, two brats, a peculiar store manager, and a cat.

Unless you wanted to count the (practically useless) resident Shinigami.

Isshin snickered to himself as the bus pulled away, walking into his empty clinic. Thanks to his newly revived Shinigami powers, several of his patients had made a 'miraculous' recovery the night before and had been cleared out of his clinic early that morning. "I'm an even better actor than Rukia-chan is." The truth was, he'd known about Ichigo's Shinigami powers for a long time now and the poor boy really needed a break from them. Isshin hoped that his lie would give his son at least one weekend of peace.

And so, that was how Ichigo, Rukia, Yuzu, and Karin found themselves in Minakami Forest with a questionable map given to them by Isshin, looking for 'some river' – as marked on the map – to set up the tent by. Yes, their demented father had only one tent (apparently, family bonding included sleeping together in a small space) to give them and it was barely big enough for the twins to share. Fortunately, Ichigo had the foresight to bring a bedroll for himself that he suspected would end up being stolen from him by Rukia. As he though, she wordlessly snatched it from him the moment they had gotten off the bus, which he didn't entirely mind seeing as how he'd been named the unofficial pack horse; the only thing he wasn't carrying was that, Rukia's backpack, and the food that Yuzu had made for the trip.

Somehow, nearly an hour later, they found the stream marked on the crudely drawn map and Ichigo promptly let everything drop off his sore shoulders. The small clearing around the water's edge seemed to glow with sunlight after the foursome had been traveling through the relatively dark trees. It was unusually tranquil, save for the bubbling sound of rushing water. The river itself was more like a brook, not even a foot deep and barely a meter in width but it was a source of fresh water nonetheless. Despite the bright sun shining brilliantly overhead, the warm breeze wafting gently through the trees, and tranquility of the flowing river, Ichigo did not like this place. The silence lingering over the area felt more ominous than peaceful and he had a strange feeling that something terrible was going to happen.

Writing it off as paranoia when he saw that Rukia didn't seem bothered by the place, Ichigo hefted the tent back up onto his shoulder and began looking for a spot to set it up. Karin and Yuzu immediately set about their mission of collecting insects, each snatching a glass jar from their bags with a wadded up paper towel soaked in alcohol clinging to the inside. Rukia situated herself on one of the boulders by the brook and checked her phone for any Hollow or Arrancar sightings back in Karakura, unable to assist Ichigo since she could barely even open a juice box by herself. As an afterthought, she set her phone to vibrate instead of beeping in case any orders came in.

"Karin-chan! I found one!" Yuzu called from across the shallow stream that separated the twin sisters, waving the raven haired girl over. She leaned closer to the object of her interest, and the little beetle she had cornered twitched and waved its antennae at her, causing the light haired eleven year-old to flinch. She did not like insects, and liked their insect collecting assignment even less.

Karin barely glanced up from the glass jar that had thoroughly ensnared her attention before returning her interest to the feuding bees inside. She was only supposed to have one live insect in the jar at a time and wait until the alcohol had completely killed it before trying to catch anymore. However, once she discovered the reason why she was supposed to wait, the eleven year-old found it much more entertaining to let them kill each other. It was a faster method, at any rate.

"Karin-chan," Yuzu called when she didn't receive a response.

Karin yawned and stretched.

"Karin-chan!"

"I'm not catching it for you, Yuzu," she called back, knowing precisely what her sister wanted from her.

"But Karin-chan," she pouted, "they're so gross! Can you _please_ catch it for me?" Karin ignored her pleas, enraptured by the frantically dueling bees that had yet to give into the strong fumes of the alcohol. Yuzu frowned at her cruel sister, preparing to deliver the mother of all guilt trips when a larger pair of hands took the glass jar from her clutches.

"I can do it, Yuzu," Ichigo sighed, pretending to be annoyed. Unscrewing the lid, he easily scooped the beetle into the jar, resealed it, and handed it back to his younger sister. Now that it had no way of touching her, the insect was far less gross and a lot more intriguing to her.

It figured.

"Thank you, Ichi-nii," Yuzu smiled up at the orange haired teenager.

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered in response, before going back to setting up their tent.

Once he had finished, Ichigo seated himself on one of the various rocks lining the stream, briefly watching Yuzu out of the corner of his eye when she wandered further down the stream. Lazily, his gaze drifted to Karin who was sitting on the opposite bank and was still watching her insects fight to the death. Her eyes widened interestedly when one finally triumphed and celebrated by ingesting his opponent. After watching her for a few moments, his gaze flickered to the Shinigami kneeling next to her that had been mirroring Karin's actions.

Rukia stared with a mixture of awe and contemplation on her face as she watched the bee consume his deceased rival. "Fascinating," she mumbled, cocking her head to one side to view the spectacle from a different angle.

Ichigo subconsciously fingered his belt loop where his Shinigami license was normally fastened, feeling self-conscious now that it was absent. He knew it was dangerous going anywhere with out it, but whenever a Hollow showed up it would always started shrieking. While this normally wasn't a problem – since only people with high spiritual energy could hear it – Ichigo knew that at least Karin had enough reiatsu to hear it and really didn't feel like trying to explain why a piece of wood was making weird noises. He didn't bring Kon along either because he was violently opposed to killing anyone or anything and the idea of a _school assignment_ that forced students to take the lives of dozens of insects would have traumatized the mod soul. Besides, Rukia had her phone and her glove so it wouldn't be a problem.

As a reminder of their temporarily abandoned duties, the phone in Rukia's pocket shook once as a warning that a Hollow would be appearing nearby. Glad that she had taken the time to set the phone to vibrate, she quietly backed away from Karin and climbed to her feet before flipping it open. Two Hollows were going to appear about a half a mile south of their location in about one minute, neither of them having a bounty which meant they were low level. When she looked up from the phone Ichigo immediately caught her gaze and stiffened, expecting her to drag him off while spouting feeble excuses for their departure. He moved to stand up, fingers already reaching for the Shinigami license that wasn't there.

Rukia shook her head, silently signaling that his help wasn't needed, and swallowed a soul candy. Moments later, her soul popped out of her body wearing the familiar black shihakusho. As an afterthought, she snatched the red glove from her gigai's pocket before darting off into the woods before either of Ichigo's sisters could take notice. It was made painfully evident that Chappy now inhabited Rukia's gigai by that creepy, cat-like smirk that quickly crossed her face. Fortunately, the raven haired Shinigami had taught the replacement soul the importance of not trying to rip Ichigo's arms off – unless he deserved it – and the importance of saying as little as possible around other people. Unfortunately, Chappy still had to learn the finer points of subtlety.

Chappy plopped down next to Karin again, watching the imprisoned bee twitching in its final death throes with immense fascination. Somehow, she was capable of contorting her face into expressions that Rukia – or any other human for that matter - was probably physically incapable of mimicking. "Pyon," she muttered, missing Ichigo's glare as well as the vein that began ticking in his forehead. She leaned forward until she was lying on her stomach, propping her head up in her hands, and started kicking her feet in the air.

Karin looked at the raven haired girl out of the corner of her eye, narrowing in understanding when she saw the peculiar expression on the gigai's face. While she wasn't sure how it was possible, she knew Rukia was no longer the soul inhabiting that body. She knew this because she'd seen her brother leave his own body before and had always assumed that her adopted sister was capable of the same feat. She also knew that they were both called 'Shinigami' and that they fought creatures called 'Hollows'. She knew, because she'd fought those monsters before along with Jinta, Ururu, and Don Kanonji when the latter was trying to save his floundering show ratings by forming a spirit hunting team.

Someday, when Ichigo was alone, she would confront him about it. Until then, she could feign ignorance.

"Ichi-nii!" Yuzu called, drawing the attention of both of her siblings. She had abandoned her sandals on the side of the stream and was pointing wildly at a water strider she'd been pursuing. Knowing that arguing would be pointless – he would lose anyway – Ichigo compliantly went to Yuzu, briefly casting a glance at his watch. The neon digits read a few minutes after noon.

* * *

Rukia sighed in irritation as she surveyed the empty landscape before glaring at the glowing screen of her phone. Five minutes now she had been standing in the exact spot where the Hollows were supposed to appear, and she'd seen neither hide nor hair of anything sporting a white mask with a gaping hole in its chest. She checked for any updates she might have missed but found none even though her scanner wasn't picking up any Hollow activity within a ten mile radius. Briefly entertaining the thought of drop kicking the damn thing – since it was _obviously_ broken – the irritated Shinigami began pacing to vent her frustrations; quickly wearing a rut into the slightly soft ground. She'd give the Hollows five minutes, and if they didn't show _then_ she would drop kick her stupid phone. That is, after she removed the Chappy trinket she had attached to it.

After another brief scan of the area, the raven haired girl began wondering why any Hollow in their right mind would come to such a remote place. There were no houses nearby, very few people, and since these were supposed to be low level Hollows they lacked refined intelligence and relied on instinct – they only ever frequented large cities. Then again, Ichigo still couldn't control his spirit energy and he absolutely reeked of Shinigami which was considered a delicacy among Hollows. Higher level Hollows knew better than to engage those that hunted them, unless they were actually strong enough to present a challenge. Lower level Hollows, however, sought out the strongest reiatsu they could find and attacked viciously until they succeeded, or they had been purified.

The Shinigami slowed to a halt, not even noticing that she was no longer moving. All this made Rukia now wonder why they wouldn't have shown up yet. She had, after all, arrived on the scene before the Hollows should have and her presence would have immediately drawn them to her. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when the very air in front of her ripped open and a spike shaped appendage slammed into the ground where she had been standing only moments before. "Finally," she muttered under her breath, grasping the hilt of her zanpakuto and waiting for the Hollow to fully materialize. The area to her right – just barely inside her peripheral vision – suddenly began to waver as the second Hollow made his appearance.

Rukia jumped back to keep a fair distance between herself and the Hollows while she took in their appearance. The first Hollow was reminiscent of a giant crab and had a layered shell covering most of its body though it (thankfully) lacked pincers of any kind. The second Hollow had the appearance of a large, winged, praying mantis and was smaller than his companion. Drawing Sode no Shirayuki, Rukia decided to take out the winged Hollow first since the flying types were always more problematic. Before she had even moved to strike, something slammed painfully into her side and flung her against a tree with such force that it splintered and nearly toppled over.

Crumpling to the ground, winded, Rukia cursed herself for being so careless and quickly focused her attention on the third Hollow that had snuck up behind her. She had little time for observation when a giant, clawed hand swung through the air and practically shattered the tree she had been flung against. Had she rolled away a split second slower, it would have been her skull that was fragmented and scattered across the ground. Ignoring her aching ribs and sore arm, Rukia climbed to her feet only to find herself surrounded by four Hollows and the shimmering air around her signaled that even more were on their way. At one point Rukia counted around twelve Hollows, at least ten of them mid-level or higher, and stopped caring how many there were once they began to advance. Knowing this battle was best ended quickly, the Shinigami really had only one option.

"Dance, Sode no Shirayuki!"

* * *

Five insects later Ichigo checked his watch again, sighing in irritation to cover up his concern. He wasn't exactly sure what time it had been when Rukia had run off without so much as a word, but he knew that twenty minutes had passed since he'd first began checking the time. He could still feel her slightly diminished reiatsu in the distance, which meant she wasn't dead or dying, but that offered him little comfort. What if she ran into a sadistic Hollow like that Shrieker guy and she was slowly being tortured to death? Or maybe she had already won but she had been seriously injured or had broken a bone and couldn't move? Or the Arrancar! What if she was being held hostage? Mentally slapping himself, Ichigo shook his head and crossed his arms fiercely over his chest.

Any Hollow short of a Menos Grande was nothing to Rukia now that her powers were fully recovered, and that was when she left her sword in its sealed state. Ichigo also knew that if it were a Menos Grande or even an Arrancar that she was up against, he would have been able to sense it by now. Plus, on the off chance that she had been injured, she could always use her kidou to patch herself up. He wasn't even certain when or where the Hollow was supposed to show up, which was also a factor in her lateness. Visibly relaxing, Ichigo decided that Rukia was either already on her way back, or busy with healing up a few minor scrapes. It did, after all, take longer for her to heal herself and if she _had_ broken something…

…Like her arm…or her leg…or her neck and was lying in the middle of the woods, paralyzed, and another Hollow happened to come along…

"Damn it," Ichigo muttered under his breath, climbing to his feet and seeking out Chappy.

Yuzu and Karin had spread out a picnic blanket a few minutes ago and were digging into the bentos that the former had made for their lunch. At that time, Chappy _had _been sitting with them munching on an onigiri. Now, she was standing in the middle of the stream, hunched over with her arms outstretched, trying to catch the small silvery fish that flitted between the rocks. Witnessing the temporary soul's behavior while she inhabited Rukia's gigai was always a peculiar sight; he could never picture the real Rukia doing anything so bizarre. He was reluctant to leave his sisters in the care of that _thing_ but he had little choice in the matter.

When he approached her, Chappy immediately abandoned her activity and gave Ichigo a stern look. "Rukia has not returned," she muttered gravely. At least, she understood the severity of the- "Pyon."

"Would you knock that shit off!" He hissed at her, his fierce glare ignored by the ditzy konpaku. "I'm going to find her, so make sure _nothing_ happens to my sisters, got it?" Chappy nodded, pausing when a flash of silver below her caught her attention. Wordlessly, she dived for the fish, and Ichigo skillfully ignored her bizarre antics. "Yuzu, Karin." Hearing their names, the twin sisters looked up from their bentos. "I'll be right back I have to uh…I'll be back in a few minutes. Stay close to Rukia." Letting them draw their own conclusions, Ichigo felt out Rukia's reiatsu and headed out in that direction.

"Alright," Karin replied needlessly, requiring no further explanation. While it would have been fun and sinfully easy to give her brother a hard time, he wasn't the only one worried about Rukia's long absence.

Yuzu, however, did not know that Rukia was off fighting huge monsters with white masks. Yuzu – unlike her siblings – had never been able to see the monsters that the two Shinigami fought and quite frankly Karin hoped it would stay that way. "Ichi-nii, wait!"

"He's going to the bathroom, Yuzu," Karin lied coolly, finishing off her rice ball.

"Oh," Yuzu paused, letting her chopsticks dip into the ramen noodles. "Well, he could have just said so."

Karin shrugged indifferently, "He's a boy. They're weird like that." The dark haired eleven year-old leaned back against the tree and shut her eyes. She'd gotten pretty far along in her assignment and she still had all of Sunday to finish it so taking a short nap wouldn't hurt. Besides, there were a few insects she wanted for her collection that only came out at night so if she slept now, she'd be awake enough later to catch them. Letting a heavy sigh escape from her lips, she easily drifted into unawareness.

_Everything suddenly existed in sepia tones riddled with scratches and shakes like the world itself had become an old film. The forest was no longer a quiet one, echoing with the chirping of birds and the occasional hissing cicadas that nearly overpowered the quiet trickling of the stream. Reality itself suddenly shifted like a dropped frame and the once vacant scene was occupied by two teenage girls walking along the water's edge. Both girls wore matching white kimonos and simple, red obis encircled their waist. Upon first glance, both girls were identical in appearance: Black hair, dark brown eyes, rather pale skin, and they were even the exact same height. When given closer scrutiny, however, their differences became apparent._

_ The girl in the lead was smiling assertively, stepping sure-footedly over the slippery stones. She stood with her shoulders squared and eyes glinting as if daring the rocks to reach out and try to trip her. She carried an unmistakable air of confidence about her as if the world itself would stop turning if she willed it to. The girl behind her, however, strayed from the brook and made sure to keep a safe distance from the uneven ground. Her worried gaze – almost a scowl – was locked on the first girl as if expecting something horrible would happen to her. She even seemed to be shrinking down inside of her kimono to pull herself away from the world into a cocoon of safety._

_ The first girl suddenly stopped, lifting her smiling face to the sky and breathing in deeply. The second girl stopped as well, her gaze shifting timidly to the surrounding area. "Yae, let's go back. We shouldn't go so far from the village. It's dangerous."_

_ Yae slowly closed her eyes, letting the sun warm her face. "You needn't worry so much, Sae. Do you remember this place?"_

_ Sae cautiously glanced around before her gaze settled on the river. Suddenly, she relaxed. "Of course, we came here when we were younger. We used to play here all the time until we started our lessons and training with father." The tiny smile that managed to tug up one corner of her mouth quickly dropped into a frown. "Yae, we don't have to leave…please…"_

_ "I won't," Yae's expression became grave as she addressed her sibling, still focusing on the sky above. "I can't do it, Sae. We can't stay. I brought you here because I made you a promise." She turned to face Sae, her smile returning. "This is where I promised…where _we_ promised that we would always be together. I won't break my promise to you, Sae." Yae moved to stand beside her look-a-like and gently placed her hands on Sae's shoulders. "Please, leave the village with me."_

_ Sae's lips didn't move though her voice could be heard clearly as if her thoughts were echoing through the forest. 'My body is weak, Yae…I might not be able to follow you. What if you leave me behind? I don't want to be alone…sister.' Yae did not hear Sae's words and another dropped frame of reality stole Yae away and left Sae to sob miserably. A bright pinpoint of crimson light suddenly pierced the sepia toned world, taking on the shape of a butterfly flitting gracefully through the trees with a small, auburn haired girl pursuing it._

Karin immediately snapped to wakefulness, a cold sweat drenching her face as she heavily gasped for breath. Relief was the first sensation that gripped her, finding the world in its normal state and void of any ghosts whatsoever. No dream or nightmare had ever affected her this severely in a long time – not since she'd seen the memories of a little ghost boy named Shibata whose mother was brutally murdered in front of him. Another brief scan of the area, however, caused the raven haired girl to frown. Only a few minute ago, Yuzu had been sitting across from her on the picnic blanket but now, she was nowhere in site.

Quickly climbing to her feet and stepping closer to the river, Karin cupped her hands around her mouth. "Yuzu! Hey Yuzu, where are you?" Receiving no response from her twin she surveyed the scenery more carefully, a red pinpoint of light in the distance suddenly catching her attention.

Just like in her dream, a crimson butterfly was leading Yuzu deeper into the forest.

"Yuzu! Wait!" Karin called out, leaping across the brook and sprinting after her sister.

Chappy, who was still standing ankle deep in the water trying to catch fish, suddenly snapped to attention when she realized that her charges were running off into the woods. Leaping from the river, the replacement soul had only gotten a few steps into her pursuit when another butterfly cut off her path. She examined it with uncharacteristic seriousness, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. The strange, glowing insect felt almost like a Hell Butterfly though its reiatsu was significantly stronger and felt influential – for lack of a better word. Its mere presence had been enough to halt the konpaku in her tracks. Intrigued by the unique creature, Chappy cautiously reached out to catch and examine it more closely and the moment she had extended her arm, the butterfly perched precariously on the tip of her index finger.

She promptly collapsed moments later.

Karin swore under her breath as low branches and underbrush whipped painfully at her legs and arms, almost trying to snatch her further from Yuzu's fleeting form, and finding out quickly that her voice was not reaching Yuzu's ears. She had managed to close a considerable amount of distance between herself and her sister, but now she couldn't seem to catch up no matter how fast she ran. Her next steps carried her past an old, weather-worn statue that barely reached her knees with an engraving of two shrine maidens on it. The moment she had stepped beyond the invisible barrier it created, Karin suddenly lurched forward into a world colored entirely in grays; the only exception was the crimson butterfly dancing acerbically before her.

A shadow of a woman briefly overlaid Yuzu's fleeting form; a shadow of the woman Karin had seen in her dream. Abruptly gaining an extra burst of speed, Karin was finally able to close the few remaining feet that separated the twins and reached out to grab Yuzu's shoulder. Suddenly, it was not her shoulder that was gripped in Karin's hand, but her thin, warm neck and her grip began to tighten. Appalled, she pulled herself away from this image, finding herself standing alone with a moonlit path lying in front of her.

Not caring how the day had suddenly transitioned to nighttime so quickly or why the air suddenly felt heavy and cold, Karin hurried down the path calling desperately for her twin sister. Upon reaching the end of the trail, to her relief, she found Yuzu had stopped on top of the slope before her, a stone monument situated in the center of the hill. This time when she called her name, Yuzu actually responded. Slowly she turned to face Karin, her eyes distant and slightly glazed over, and Karin found herself shivering.

"Karin-chan…I can see them…"

_Crimson…Butterfly…  
It's calling me…  
Calling me deep into the village…  
No…It's not us…_

_ - Mayu Amakura_

A/N: I am a bad, BAD person. Here I am making my 'Arashi' readers wait for the next chapter and what do I do? I start _another_ story! I didn't mean to do it really; it's just when a story starts poking me it refuses to stop.

The Village: Poke

Damn it! Anyway, I hope the first chapter was intriguing enough for you.


	2. Chapter Two

Obligatory Author's Note: Should have mentioned this earlier, but this story will take certain artistic liberties concerning what happened to the main characters of Fatal Frame II and a few other elements. You'll find out what later.

**The Village**

**Chapter Two**

"_In this region, twins serve an unusual purpose. Twins sisters and brothers perform a special ritual here. Each time a ritual is completed, a new Twin Deities Statue is placed somewhere in the village. The ritual occurs every few decades, and judging by the number of Twin Deities Statues, this tradition is very old. For some reason, one of the twins always has its head broken off. Sometimes they are sculpted without a head from the start."_

_ - Masumi Makimura_

It didn't take very long for Ichigo to find Rukia, and the sight he found was not one he had anticipated. The dark haired Shinigami had propped herself up against a tree stump, the rest of the tree having been snapped off, and her hands were hovering over a nearly healed injury on her leg, glowing lightly with kidou. The small clearing her battle had created was strewn with tree branches, jagged stumps, and large chunks of ice that were clinging to any surface that would support it. Several large footprints had been left stamped in the soft ground and there were definitely more than two or three different types of tracks. His brief sense of relief at finding his companion still breathing suddenly turned to fury as he stormed up to her, choking on whatever he was going to say when he saw her up close.

Rukia was a mess, to say the least. Various rips decorated her shihakusho, each tear leaking a considerable amount of blood, and something that looked suspiciously like a very large bite mark adorned her left shoulder. Chunks of bark and leaves were stuck in her sweat matted hair and the patches of mud on her clothing and skin suggested she had been knocked down more than a few times. Ichigo could only imagine what she had looked like before she had started to heal herself. Marching up to her side he considered giving her head a sound knock before he began lecturing her, until he saw that her raven hair was matted not with sweat, but blood.

It had definitely been an ambush; that much was apparent to the injured Shinigami. It happened every so often that Sereitei would lose one of their own to a surprise attack planned by a higher level Hollow with several of its kin under its control. The leader would send one or two of its weakest into the real world to draw attention and once a Shinigami came along they were ambushed by the Hollow's stronger companions. It was a rare occurrence since it wasn't easy to deceive the Secret Mobile Corps of Soul Society and no Hollow with the capacity to execute such a plan was stupid enough to try such a tactic unless they were certain of victory. Unfortunately for these particular Hollows, their opponent was not one of the unseated, nameless-sword wielding Shinigami that would have normally shown up.

Despite her appearance, Rukia wasn't in too much pain and most of the gashes she had received were shallow. After she had released her zanpakuto, she had managed to freeze nearly half of her assailants with one attack. That, however, left her back exposed to the rest of the advancing Hollows which was how she received most of her injuries. The rest of the battle was fought without the aid of any kidou, none of her opponents giving her nearly enough room to call out any spells or attacks. It was only a few minutes after the battle when she sensed Ichigo's reiatsu approaching and she prepared herself for one of his inane lectures.

"You idiot," he grumbled. "How many of those damn things were there?"

"Twelve or so." She didn't look up.

Ichigo took a deep breath to try and calm himself down. It didn't work. "Why the HELL didn't you ask me for help?!"

Rukia was entirely too tired to argue, but his yelling was doing nothing for her headache. "The report only said _two_ Hollows that didn't even have a bounty on them yet. How was I supposed to know…?" A wave of dizziness smacked Rukia square in the forehead and her eyes nearly rolled back into their sockets. She tried to shake her head to clear it and only succeeded in causing her headache to worsen. Deciding she wouldn't get much more healing done without a clear head, she gingerly touched her glowing hands to the nasty bump on the back of her skull and fell silent until the injury was fully healed.

"At any rate, I couldn't let you just leave your sisters…" She trailed off, her head suddenly snapping up in realization. "You left your sisters alone with _Chappy?_" Her indigo eyes turned sharply to meet his gaze with a fierce glare. "How incompetent do you think I am?" The very idea that he would trust a slightly unbalanced soul – that was little more than a green pill in its true form – with his sisters' lives before he trusted her with her own life was infuriating.

"You were gone for a half hour! What the hell was I supposed to think?!"

"My reiatsu levels were still fine, _surely_ even you could sense that."

"Just shut the hell up," Ichigo grumbled tiredly. He knelt down in front of the injured Shinigami with his back facing her.

Rukia stared at him blankly. "What are you doing?"

"Look, I don't want to leave my sisters alone any longer than I have to, but I'm _not_ going to leave you here by yourself so either get on my back or I'm knocking you out and dragging you back." Ichigo glared at Rukia over his shoulder and she easily reciprocated it.

"I'm perfectly capable of walking," she dissented, carefully climbing to her feet to prove her point and silently wishing she'd taken the time to heal her bruised ribs first. Her hand went to her shredded shoulder as she walked away, the torn ragged flesh slowly melting back into place as the pain gradually receded. External hemorrhaging took precedence over bruises.

Grumbling irritably under his breath, Ichigo stood and followed the stubborn midget and briefly wondered how much pain she would inflict on him if he _did_ try to knock her out and drag her back to camp. He imagined it would be a lot, considering she was in her (albeit battered) Shinigami form and was definitely not afraid of imposing pain onto him. Ultimately, he let her be since her wounds didn't seem to be hindering her movement and he wasn't exactly sure he remembered how to get back to the camp. Once they reached the river, Rukia hung back in the shadows of the trees to hide from Yuzu and Karin and finish healing her cuts while Ichigo entered the camp to get Chappy.

* * *

Not caring how the day had suddenly transitioned to nighttime so quickly or why the air suddenly felt heavy and cold, Karin hurried down the path calling desperately for her twin sister. Upon reaching the end of the trail, to her relief, she found Yuzu had stopped on top of the slope before her, a stone monument situated in the center of the hill. This time when she called her name, Yuzu actually responded. Slowly she turned to face Karin, her eyes distant and slightly glazed over, and Karin found herself shivering.

"Karin-chan…I can see them."

Karin didn't need Yuzu to elaborate her statement because the dark haired eleven year-old could easily see for herself. Beyond the hill they stood on was a nearly vertical slope that leveled out into a small valley, and a minute village shrouded in fog was neatly tucked between the steep hills and an impenetrable wall of foliage. The village itself consisted of a handful of old, wooden buildings reminiscent of feudal style homes – a few of them having been contorted into little more than rotting piles of wood – and a dirt path that wound throughout the entire valley. As intriguing as the dilapidated village cloaked in darkness was, it was not solely that which had drawn Yuzu's interest.

What had captivated the attention of the twin sisters was the village's deceased inhabitants. Along the widest path through the village, twelve men dressed in priestly robes and faces masked by veils seemingly glided past the antiquated buildings. They traveled in two lines, their synchronized footsteps echoed by the sharp clanging of their metal staffs and the low rumble of incoherent chanting. One by one, they disappeared behind one of the houses and strangely, once the last man had passed from their sight, the chanting and the chinking of metal vanished as well. Karin sighed heavily, shivering slightly as her body finally took notice of the chilly, damp air clinging to her skin. Her gaze curiously went to Yuzu whose attention was still focused on the now vacant streets.

Interestingly enough, the slightly shorter girl seemed delighted.

"Karin-chan, I can see them! I can see ghosts now!" She exulted happily, bouncing up on her toes and grinning gleefully.

In Karin's opinion, it was hardly an appropriate reaction but at least the creepy, vacant gaze had left her sister's eyes. Now that she thought about it, it wasn't surprising that Yuzu was so excited – she had always been remarking how _lucky_ her siblings were to be able to see the souls of the departed. Both, of course, doubted that the auburn haired girl would feel so fortunate after being relentlessly pestered by spirits having trouble passing on or ghosts that were looking for living people to irritate; it was the whole reason why Karin denied their existence. Briefly ignoring Yuzu's revelation, the dark haired girl addressed a more important topic.

"Yuzu, you shouldn't have run off like that," she scolded lightly, a firm scowl set on her face. "We should get back before Ichigo…"

Yuzu cut off her sister mid-sentence, "Can we go down there, Karin-chan? Please?"

Karin froze in shock, rather taken aback by her sister's request. "What? Why?"

"Because, this is the first time I've ever been able to see ghosts," she replied excitedly. "I want to see one up close and talk to it and I might not get another chance." At this point, Yuzu was definitely pouting which – unfortunately for her – never worked on Karin.

"Trust me, Yuzu," she stated disinterestedly, scowling lightly, "you'll get more chances than you could possibly ever want."

"But, Karin-chan…"

"Yuzu, we have to go back, _now_," Karin insisted firmly, skillfully ignored the glistening tears that peaked out of the corners of Yuzu's eyes since they were most likely fake, anyway. Trying to dish out a guilt trip of her own, she added, "If we aren't there when Ichigo gets back, then we'll end up getting Rukia-chan in a lot of trouble. She's probably really worried about us."

"Rukia-neesan?" Yuzu muttered, her sniffling causing Karin to mentally roll her eyes. Peculiarly, her face suddenly brightened. "Rukia-neesan must have seen us leave, so she must have followed us!" Karin seriously doubted that, wondering if the bizarre 'whatever-the-hell-it-was' inhabiting their adopted sister's body had even bothered to glance at them when they left. "She'll be here soon, so we don't have to worry!"

But Karin did worry.

She had been worried ever since she had stepped past the small, shrine maiden statue in the forest and the brief, but horrifying, vision she had of strangling Yuzu had done little to calm her nerves. Even now, simply standing there filled Karin with an ominous sense of dread that clutched painfully at her throat. She was also not looking forward to meeting any ghost that happened to reside in this village, and for once it was not because she was annoyed by them. Quite frankly, after just a brief glimpse of the robed men solemnly making their way through the village, she found herself absolutely terrified in a way that only a Hollow had ever terrified her. It actually surprised her somewhat that Yuzu couldn't feel the heavy animosity surrounding them, the sensation so overpowering that even their father – who, she thought, was completely blind to the spirit world – would have been able to detect it.

Or maybe something was influencing Yuzu, since she did seem to be acting odd.

Before Karin could voice her concerns, Yuzu had already made up her own mind and was heading down the slope into the village; a considerable amount of distance already separated the sisters. "Yuzu, wait!" Karin called out, quickly following her into the valley.

Near the base of the slope, something cool, black, and malleable reached out and snagged her foot, bringing Karin crashing to the ground. Not even bothering to see what had tripped her, the raven haired girl scrambled to her feet and continued pursuing Yuzu without noticing that her red cap was no longer resting on her head. Fortunately her sister hadn't run nearly so far this time, standing before one of the more stable looking houses as if she was preparing to enter.

"Yuzu!"

"She went in here," Yuzu explained, though it sounded more like she was talking to herself.

"She who?" Karin suddenly shook her head, realizing it wasn't important. "Yuzu, we should leave…come on. This place is old anyway, the building could collapse."

Yuzu grinned, ignoring Karin's words. "A woman ghost was standing here and she walked inside…right through the _wall_." Not even asking or waiting for permission this time, Yuzu opened the door to the two-story home and strode inside, giving her sister little choice but to follow and make sure that no harm befell her.

The air that rushed out was musty and clung unpleasantly to the inside of Karin's nose. When the sisters stepped inside, they found themselves in a small foyer, completely closed off from the rest of the house save for the lattice on the wall to their left, offering a small glimpse of a storage room. Standing before them was another door that Yuzu was already moving to open, Karin completely oblivious to her actions. While she had fully planned on forcefully dragging her sister out of the house and back to their campsite, she felt herself freeze the instant the front door shut behind them. Yuzu, for all her enthusiasm to meet a ghost face to face, didn't even notice what lay beyond the lattice.

Standing between a hanging kimono and a dusty, old dresser was the white-clad woman that had been in Karin's dream. She stood quietly peering out at the twins from beneath the dark bangs overshadowing her brown eyes, her arms limp at her sides. Whether it was Yae or Sae was unknown – and unimportant – to Karin because the almost sadistic smirk on her face and the haunting glint in her eyes was unbecoming of either girl. More concerning was the substantial amounts of blood splattered across the front of her kimono in such a manner that there was no mistaking that even a drop of it belonged to her. The woman's gaze met Karin's, her dark eyes piercing straight through to Karin's very soul and invoking pure terror in the young girl.

"Are you leaving me again?" She spoke barely above a whisper, a hint of malice on the edge of her tone. Karin's breath trapped itself in her lungs as her heart hammered fiercely against her ribs.

The gentle click of a door shutting was enough to jolt her back to reality, realizing that she was now alone in the foyer and that Yuzu had entered the building. Her attention snapped back to the lattice, a strange mixture of relief and anxiety flooding her senses when she found that the woman had vanished. Karin had never felt so much fear upon seeing a ghost, not even the first time she had glimpsed one, and hoped to never see it again. This, however, brought up the issue that Yuzu was inside with a potentially dangerous spirit. Her fear rising to new heights at the thought of her sister pursuing the woman motivated Karin to act and she quickly found herself rushing inside.

Only to plow straight into Yuzu.

"Sorry," Karin apologized subconsciously. Yuzu showed no sign of acknowledging Karin's presence, too preoccupied with trying to figure out where 'her' ghost went.

A sunken fireplace was situated near the center of the room, piles of dust and ash coating its surface. Beyond the fireplace was a pair of torn partition screens leaning up against a set of stairs leading to the second story. Just to the right of the stairs was a door and even further to the right was a corridor with ragged pieces of cloth draped over the low, wooden beams. Along the wall behind them was another door that led to the storeroom beyond the lattice. Upon spotting it, Karin fought back a shudder that assaulted her spine when the frightening image of the blood-spattered ghost reentered her mind. Reaching out to forcefully snatch Yuzu's shoulder and pull her back outside, Karin's finger's ended up closing around air when her sister darted forward. Grumbling angrily under her breath, Karin followed her sister.

Yuzu had made for the corridor, shoving aside the cloth and kicking up plumes of dust in the process and Karin was the one that suffered for her carelessness. Following too close behind her determined sister earned her a face full of moldy, pungent cloth and a lungful of dust that was promptly evacuated by several consecutive sneezes. Her lungs cleared just in time for her to catch a glimpse of the woman that her sister was so valiantly pursuing, feeling immense relief when she saw that the ghost was not the girl she had seen behind the lattice earlier. She had just turned the corner at the end of the hall and vanished from sight, quiet, nearly incoherent words drifting from her mouth.

"Masumi? Where are you?" She questioned, nervousness lining the edge of her voice, wandering further down the hallway and approaching the lone door at the very end.

Yuzu eagerly followed, "Hey! Wait!" She called out, ignored by the specter she was pursing. Pausing a frowning briefly, she asked, "Why can't she hear me, Karin-chan?"

Karin placed her hands on her hips, glaring irritably at the back of Yuzu's head. "She sounds like she's looking for someone and probably doesn't like being followed around by an annoying little kid."

"Karin-chan," Yuzu pouted, actually bothering to look at her sister this time, "that's so mean." She snapped her gaze stubbornly back to the door just as the woman vanished through it. Despite being snubbed, Yuzu was bound determined to get the woman to talk to her and followed the unresponsive spirit through the door.

"Yuzu," Karin grumbled, following closely behind, "let's just leave. There are plenty of ghosts for you to pester back in Karakura and…" She trailed off the minute she had entered the room and her skin was assaulted by frigid air that was even chillier than the temperature outside. Even Yuzu, who had been doing a very good impression of their stubborn and thick-headed brother up to this point, had stopped in her tracks.

As far as the twins could see, there was little difference between this room and the rest of the house. The walls were the same dull gray though the room itself looked a little darker. A torn screen partition blocked their view of a good portion of the room, though the girls could see a dusty old coal brazier sitting in the middle of a floor and the small deck beyond it that offered a view of a closed in garden. Somehow, Karin could feel that it was not the open doors leading outside that caused the room to feel so icy.

Yuzu took a small, timid step forward and clutched her hands tightly to her chest. "Ghost-san?" She called out quietly, the shaky quality of her voice a mixture of the cold and her sudden nervousness. Despite that, she and Karin moved a little further into the room.

An ear-piercing shriek suddenly filled the room and Yuzu immediately latched onto Karin in terror, both of their wide-eyed gazed fixated on the figures that had been hidden from sight by the partition screen. The woman they had been pursuing was laying the floor, pinned to the ground by a dark haired man with bloody lacerations zigzagging across his pale flesh. She screamed again and again as his fingers closed over her neck and slowly crushed her throat. The woman thrashed fiercely in his grip, continuing to scream long after her lungs had been completely emptied of oxygen and her shrieks had turned into choked sobs.

Karin and Yuzu watched in frozen horror as the woman's struggles slowed to a halt when her eyes rolled back into her head and her body fell limp. The man released his grip on her and slowly stood. Yuzu burrowed deeper into Karin's side and a small whimper escaped her lips. Karin swallowed the horrible lump that had risen in her throat that she suspected was vomit. Slowly, the man turned to gaze at the twins and both girls felt their hearts stop.

More bloody gashes crisscrossed over his chest, down the length of his arms, and across his callous face. Sticky trails of red leaked from the corners of his eye sockets from which his eyes had been torn. Yuzu trembled against her sister, her mouth hanging open as she choked on the air trying to enter her constricted lungs, while Karin protectively wrapped her arm around the shivering girl. Somehow, a shriek tore itself from Yuzu's taut throat when the man began moving towards them.

Karin immediately snapped into action, dragging her screaming sister out of the room and was scrambling back down the hallway before even she realized she had acted. Yuzu managed to get her legs working again as the twins turned the corner and raced for the front door. Karin practically slammed into it, latching onto the door handle and trying to tug it open. A heavy clanking noise met Karin's ears upon the door's refusal to budge in spite of her fierce tugging.

They were trapped.

* * *

"You FUCKING lost them!?"

While hanging back away from the camp, Rukia had finished healing the last of the bloody gashes that decorated her arms and torso when the Hollow-like shriek of an extremely pissed off Ichigo startled her out of her reverie. Cautiously, she stepped out into the clearing and blinked in surprise at the scene that lay in front of her. Dangling by her throat nearly a foot off the ground was her gigai, Ichigo's hand tightly gripping the collar of her dress and partially cutting off her air supply. In all honesty, she had never seen the orange haired boy nearly this furious before. Finding his sister's absent from the scene, she deemed it relatively safe to enter the clearing.

"What is it?" Rukia questioned, nearly flinching when she saw the rage in his eyes.

"This _thing_," Ichigo shook Chappy firmly to emphasize his point, "lost my sisters," he snarled, glaring daggers at the indifferent konpaku.

"I did not lose them, they ran away," she stated matter-of-factly, her even tone only serving to infuriate him further.

Ichigo shook her again, harder, before he spoke, "Where?! And why the hell didn't you follow them!" Chappy pointed in the direction that Yuzu and Karin had run off in.

"I did follow, but I was blocked."

Not caring what she meant by 'blocked' Ichigo's grip tightened. "I told you to make sure nothing happened to them!"

"Rukia, Ichigo is injuring me. May I rip his arms off?" Chappy inquired rather plaintively for someone whose oxygen supply was being cut off.

Rukia wasn't exactly happy with the konpaku either, but it was still her gigai that was being damaged and she wasn't looking forward to healing more injuries. "Ichigo, would you please stop strangling my gigai?" She grumbled, pulling a red glove from the folds of her kosode. The moment Ichigo spotted it he snatched the glove from her hands and – without bothering to put it on – practically punched Chappy in the stomach with it. Much to Rukia's horror, the tiny green pill that represented the replacement soul dropped into the river behind her and was immediately carried downstream.

"You bastard!" Rukia shouted, kicking Ichigo in the kidneys and knocking him into the river. "Do you have _any_ idea how expensive and hard to get those are!?" Ichigo responded by flailing pathetically in the stream and choking on a mouthful of water. Ignoring his response, Rukia picked up her gigai and scowled at its dripping clothes. "And now my gigai is drenched, too," she grumbled, holding the gigai out daintily by the shoulders as if it were a dirty sock.

Ichigo finally managed to pull himself out of the water, coughing violently. "You…bitch…" He choked out, glaring fiercely at the short girl.

She returned it easily, "Where's my glove?" Ichigo looked down at his empty hands before turning his gaze to the river. "You lost that too?!"

"You're the one who kicked me!" He retaliated, glowering down at the raven haired Shinigami.

Rukia raised herself up, irritated at having to stand on her toes to properly shout at the orange haired idiot in front of her. "I wouldn't have needed to if you hadn't lost Chappy!"

"I wouldn't have lost that stupid thing if she hadn't lost my sisters!"

"Your sisters wouldn't be lost if you hadn't…" Rukia's voice trailed off quickly and both of the Shinigami sobered, averting their gazes as their shoulders slumped. "Look, standing here arguing isn't going to bring us any closer to finding Yuzu and Karin. Just seek out their spirit ribbons and we can find them that way. They shouldn't have gone very far." With that, Rukia slid into her gigai.

"Shit."

A strangled grunt escaped her throat before she could stop it when her forgotten bruises jolted across her body's ribs in a renewed wave of agonizing pain that dwarfed the sudden ache on her bruised arm. Rukia nearly doubled over from the combined pain when her neck and stomach suddenly felt sore and she wondered when she received such injuries until remembering Chappy's earlier abuse. Immediately, she placed her hands over her tender ribs and stomach to simultaneously heal her ribs while soothing away the pain in her stomach.

Concern and guilt etched itself into Ichigo's features and he immediately regretted inadvertently injuring her. "Sorry," he mumbled quietly.

His apology was immediately waved off. "This is nothing. I bruised my ribs earlier and forgot to heal them."

Rukia's explanation did nothing to make Ichigo feel less guilty. Stepping back and looking at the situation now, he immediately heaped all of the blame on himself. He should have known better than to leave Kon behind at his house. If he hadn't left the mod-soul he could have followed Rukia and prevented her from getting injured and his sisters probably wouldn't be missing right now. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a sharp glare from Rukia.

"Are you just going to stand there making that stupid face or are you going to find them?" It was always interesting how she managed to console someone by yelling at them.

Ichigo straightened and turned away from Rukia, facing the direction that his sisters had gone and closing his eyes in concentration. The world around him seemed to fade away from his senses as a bright light fell over him. In a matter of moments, white ribbons unfurled around him and fluttered just within his reach. There were very few – considering they were out in the wilderness – and he already knew that the splotch of red intermingling with the sea of white belonged to Rukia. Reaching out, he snatched two of the ribbons while the rest faded from his vision. Rukia let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.

Moments later, the ribbons dissolved into nothingness.

Staring blankly at his clenched hand, Ichigo flexed his fingers to try and catch the ribbons that no longer existed. Desperately, he tried to call them back to his hand with even grimmer results than his first attempt. The vanishing of his sister's spirit ribbons only meant one thing: Death. Sinking to his knees, Ichigo stared numbly at his empty hands and didn't move. At that point, he was beyond anger and sadness to a point of utter disbelief. Having witnessed his unsuccessful attempts, Rukia frowned before she allowed her own eyes to drift shut before it was she that the graceful white ribbons danced around.

It wasn't optimism that drove her - Rukia was a horribly depressing realist – but disbelief. She didn't doubt Ichigo's abilities to seek out souls since he had proven them to be on par with a high-level Shinigami a long time ago. He was, however, still untrained and rather emotional at this point which was why Rukia decided to try seeking out Yuzu and Karin herself. After all, there were hardly any creatures in this forest capably of taking a human's life and she doubted that there was anything in the way of cliffs or ravines. Hollows were also out of the question, considering she'd probably just exorcised the entire area's Hollow population during that ambush and her phone would have prompted her of any further attacks.

After a few minutes solid of concentration and effort, the two spirit ribbons that she sought so desperately drifted into view. Rukia wasted no time in snatching them up, barely able to cling to them for a second before the white cloth unraveled between her fingers. A ghost of a smile flickered across her lips before she set a firm scowl on her face.

"She _was_ blocked."

Ichigo looked over his shoulder at Rukia, his expression hopeful. "What?"

"They aren't dead," Rukia confirmed his hopes before getting to the heart of the issue, "something is blocking their reiatsu. You were lucky you were even able to get a hold of their spirit ribbons at all. But what could possibly be blocking them?" She crossed her arms over her chest in contemplation.

"Who the hell cares?!" Ichigo immediately leapt to his feet. "We can figure all that junk out after we find Yuzu and Karin." Without a second thought – and without bothering to see if Rukia was following – Ichigo sprinted off into the woods. Rukia herself paused only long enough to snatch up some of the bentos left lying on the picnic blanket ("Foolish boy can't even think ahead…") and stuffed them into her overflowing backpack before darting after him.

It didn't take long for Ichigo and Rukia to find the source of the obstruction, which they found by stumbling through it, and promptly froze in their tracks from the sheer weight of the reiatsu surrounding them. The moment they had passed through the barrier, the forest was suddenly immersed in moonlit darkness and the temperate summer breeze transformed into the chilly air of night. Once they managed to get their bearings, the two Shinigami briefly studied their surroundings. A narrow path wound deep into the forest ahead of them, the edges of the trail sloping upward steeply and lined by a thick wall of trees.

Rukia's gaze eventually landed on the small stone statue at their feet that seemed to mark the edge of the barrier. The stone of the small statue itself was roughly cut into a half oval and the imprint was of two women joined at the waist by a rope, the woman on the left lacking a head. The Shinigami frowned when she saw that the path behind them had completely vanished beneath a mound of dirt and an impenetrable wall of foliage. It had surprised her at first when they passed through the barrier so easily, but now she understood that it was not constructed to keep people out but to prevent them from leaving.

"What the hell is this place?" Ichigo muttered, his gaze locking on several orbs of orange light flickering in the distance. They continued down the winding trail quickly, the path widening out when it reached an incline that passed under a red Shinto gate. While Ichigo passed through it without a second thought, Rukia paused and eyed the worn piece of architecture suspiciously. After a moment's hesitation, she followed Ichigo up to the top of the hill. She briefly examined the large stone monument and the rotted ropes surrounding it, acting as a barricade, before sparing a glance at the torches decorating the flat top of the hill.

Ichigo stood on the edge of a steep incline, staring down at the village below and hoping against hope that his sister's weren't down there. The intense reiatsu that the place emitted was rank with the stench of Hollows, yet there was something distinctly different about it. He thoroughly scanned the streets below trying to pick out the image of his sisters from the dilapidated homes and deserted alleys. "Damn it," he muttered under his breath, his fists tightening until his knuckles turned white. He again tried to locate their spirit ribbons, growling in frustration when the results were hardly any better than his early attempts.

Rukia moved around the stone monument and looked over it more carefully. There was nothing remarkable about the stone protruding from the hill – it was little more that an unusually large slab of rock, yet she could feel an odd reiatsu surrounding it. As she moved around to the other side, the Shinigami froze when she spotted a spirit standing there with his gaze fixated on the monument. It was an elderly man that looked to be in his late forties dressed in a somewhat formal white kimono and clutching an almost cube-shaped device in his hands. His dark eyes surreptitiously scanned the stone as if half-expecting it to assault him. Rukia moved closer, her eyes narrowing when she noticed that he lacked a chain of fate and there was no hole in his chest. Unless this man was a Shinigami there was simply no way it could be possible.

It wasn't important, she decided. "Have you seen two girls come this way?" She questioned the ghost authoritively, her eyebrows furrowing into a scowl when the man ignored her. Immediately resorting to her failsafe tactic of brute force, Rukia reached out to snag the man's kimono front and threaten him with a sound beating. Rather unexpectedly, her hand passed straight through him.

Rukia retracted her hand quickly as though it hand been burned, staring at her palm in utter disbelief before turning her bewildered gaze on the man before her. He continued examining the boulder in front of him, apparently unaware that she even existed. Slowly, he raised the device to his face – it must have been an antique camera, Rukia deduced – and peered through the viewfinder. Barely a few seconds later, a multitude of ethereal arms darted out from the rock and Rukia instinctually leapt away and prepared to launch a kidou at the mass of appendages.

Startled, the man's finger reflexively mashed the shutter button when he stumbled backwards and fell down, fear engraved deeply in his features. A flash of light shot from the camera, encompassed the ghostly arms, and they vanished instantaneously. Rukia's gaze immediately snapped back towards the man, focusing intently on the device that had fallen from his hands when he had tripped. The man, still bewildered, stared wide-eyed at the towering rock while pulling shuddering breaths into his constricted lungs.

"What was that?" He questioned aloud, putting a shaky hand to his forehead. "I can't believe…so it's true." His gaze turned to the small device at his side, his expression troubled. "This thing is too dangerous."

Rukia cautiously moved closer to the man to give the camera closer scrutiny. She had never in all of her years heard of any technological device that had the power to exorcise malevolent spirits; much less a device that humans possessed. Quite frankly, it seemed like the sort of obscure thing that only Urahara could have come up with. But why would he – or any Shinigami for that matter – invent such a thing? They certainly had no use for it and Rukia doubted that it was an attempt to arm humans so they could defend themselves from Hollows.

Another possibility was that a human had created the device but that too made very little sense. No single human could possibly possess enough knowledge of the spirit world to create such a device; the Quincy were exceptions, but their spirit powers eliminated the need for a Hollow-slaying contrivance. On top of that, she doubted the camera would be able to work without the controlled application of reiatsu which most non-Quincy humans were incapable of. Rukia seriously doubted that any normal human would even have enough reiatsu for such a feat. That only left one option.

"Oi, Rukia!"

Rukia was pulled from her thoughts by Ichigo who was blocked from her view by the monument. She moved into his line of site, frowning at the grave expression on his face that disrupted the light scowl he was directing at her. "There's a…" Rukia began, turning to look back at the spirit lying on the ground, only to find that he and his unique camera had vanished. After blankly staring at the vacant spot, she shook her head. "Never mind."

Were it any other situation – that is, one that didn't involve his sisters in a potentially dangerous situation – he probably would have questioned her. "Quit being weird and move it," he grumbled, starting down the path into the village. Rukia followed unhesitantly, briefly casting a glance towards the Shinto gate they had passed through. She could have sworn she had seen a woman in a white kimono standing just outside it, sobbing silently into her hands.

The Shinigami blinked and the woman vanished.

_Masumi...  
Where did you go...  
Without you...  
I'm..._

_ - Miyako Sudo_

A/N: I'm entirely too excited about where this story is going, but I'm trying not to rush things too much. Hopefully, I'm succeeding. Also, later on, there is a slight chance that the rating will increase due to gore and violence and stuff like that there. By the way, if you're unfamiliar with Fatal Frame, a good website to look at is: http:// www . cameraslens . com


	3. Chapter Three

Obligatory Author's Note: Look longer? Yes! The chapter is finally finished! The battle scene later on in the chapter gave me a tough time, but I managed to work it out.

**The Village**

**Chapter Three**

_"The entire village has a weight of impending doom. The village is quite fearful of the earth's fury. Perhaps the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual is performed to purify the ground. In the past, every area had some type of ground purifying ceremony. Many of these offered sacrifices to try to calm the gods. If that custom still remains today, it explains the stillness in the village. The Twin Shrine Maidens must be the "guardian deities" of this village."_

_ - Seijiro Makabe_

Karin immediately snapped into action, dragging her screaming sister out of the room and was scrambling back down the hallway before even she realized she had acted. Yuzu managed to get her legs working again as the twins turned the corner and raced for the front door. Karin practically slammed into it, latching onto the door handle and trying to tug it open. A heavy clanking noise met Karin's ears upon the door's refusal to budge in spite of her fierce tugging.

They were trapped.

Yuzu whimpered miserably into her clenched hands, silent tears streaming down her cheeks. Karin searched the area wildly for an alternate escape route, cursing under her breath at the lack of windows. Instead, her gaze settled on the door leading to a room beneath the second floor's wide landing. Dragging Yuzu by her wrist, Karin bolted towards the door, threw it open, and shoved her sister inside. As quickly and quietly as she could, the raven haired girl slid the door shut behind them and quickly scanned the room for an exit. The room had only one window and it led into the closed off garden she had seen from the room at the end of the corridor. On the other side of the room was a see-through screen next to a tatami mat with a person-sized lump hidden beneath the blanket.

Karin started and covered her gasp with her hands when she heard the floor outside emit a heavy creak. She quickly pulled Yuzu behind the screen and yanked the trembling girl to the ground on the other side of the tatami mat. Lifting the blanket – which released a horrible stench from beneath the cloth – and keeping her back to the screen, Karin scooted under the fabric and pulled Yuzu with her. Not trusting her sister to keep quiet, she slapped her hand over the girl's mouth a little harder than she intended to and pulled the blanket tight over both of them. When she shifted further onto the tatami mat to give her sister more room, her back hit something supple and cold and she froze

The moment she had gone still, the door slammed open and a tiny, muffled squeak escaped from Yuzu's throat. Karin held her breath as footsteps echoed through the small room, feeling the vibrations they caused through the floor and cringing at the low, ominous creaking that occurred with each step. She felt Yuzu quiver fearfully against her and felt her lower lip tremble beneath her hand. Karin tightened her hold on her terrified sister in an attempt to offer the girl some measure of reassurance that even she didn't possess.

Suddenly, the footsteps ceased and an unbearable silence hung heavily in the air. Yuzu squeezed her eyes shut and pressed herself closer to the floor while Karin held her breath. Eternity seem to have passed while they lay there, the waiting so intolerable they almost wished he would find them and get it over with. Then, quite suddenly, he was simply gone. There had been no sound, no warning, yet Karin could somehow feel that his presence had vanished. Remaining completely stationary for the next perpetuity or so, Karin finally let her hand slip from Yuzu's mouth and allowed herself a few shallow breaths – nearly gagging on the forgotten stench that permeated the air. After a few seconds of mustering up enough courage to move she cautiously scooted from beneath the blanket and peeked out into the room.

Fortunately, it was as she suspected: The ghost was gone.

"He's gone, Yuzu," Karin said quietly, her voice trembling slightly. Yuzu didn't budge. Karin pulled back the blanket and Yuzu curled into a ball. "C'mon, get up." Her voice was stronger this time and managed to pull her sister back to her senses.

Once the two girls shakily climbed to their feet, Karin made the mistake of looking back at the partially uncovered tatami mat and felt her legs turn to jelly when she saw a splash of crimson on pale, cold flesh and dead eyes that were rotting out of their sockets. She felt her knees wobble and tasted bile burning in the back of her throat. At the very least, she had the presence of mind to tug the covers back over the corpse before she staggered to the nearest corner and vomited so Yuzu wouldn't have to see what had been lying only inches from them. When she finally managed the purge the image from her mind – and most of the contents of her stomach – Karin leaned shakily against the warped closet, breathing heavily.

"Are you alright, Karin-chan?" Yuzu asked quietly, placing a shaky hand on her sister's shoulder.

Karin swallowed hard when she felt her stomach nearly lurch again. "Yeah, I'm fine," she replied unsteadily, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand while she rested her forehead against the closet door.

Both of their hearts promptly leapt into their throats when one of the warped closet doors fell out of place and landed with a loud thud on the wooden floor. Karin sighed heavily in relief, somewhat irritated that she would let something so small startle her so badly. Something within the closet glinted in the pale moonlight filtering in from the window across the room and caught Yuzu's attention. The auburn haired girl cautiously moved closer and peered inside, her spirits suddenly lifting.

"It's a key," she muttered quietly to her sister, still afraid that speaking too loudly would attract more malevolent ghosts to them. Karin moved to stand by Yuzu and picked up the small, tarnished piece of metal to examine it. Maybe – hopefully – it was the key to the front door.

Karin pocketed the small object. "C'mon, let's get out of here."

Yuzu looked absolutely horrified by her sister's suggestion, terrified that they would encounter the man from earlier the moment they set foot outside the room. Karin wasn't pleased with her own idea either but she knew that they shouldn't stay in this house any longer. Putting on a brave face for Yuzu, Karin moved back towards the door and gripped the handle. She drew in a lungful of air to calm her pounding heart though nothing could be done about her trembling hands. Slowly, painfully so, she slid the door open as quietly as possible while taking only the shallowest of breaths. Once she stepped out, she had to fight the powerful urge to simply charge the front door and knock it off its hinges; panicking in front of Yuzu would not be a good idea.

Instead, Karin quietly inched her way out of the room and kept a weather eye open for any signs of the maimed man with Yuzu following closely behind. Karin knew she didn't need to look for the man – she would probably be able to sense him before she would ever catch sight of him – but it somehow served to calm her shattered nerves. Once the twins finally reached the front door, Karin fumbled around in her pocket for the small key and pulled it out. Already she could easily tell that the small metal object did not match the lock on the front door though she couldn't help but try. As she suspected, she couldn't get the key in far enough to even try turning it.

"It's no good," she muttered, eliciting a disappointed frown and a small whimper from Yuzu. Karin tried tugging on the door again, met with the same resistance as she was before and sighed heavily. Even if that key had been to unlock the front door she seriously doubted that it would have opened anyway. Someone – some_thing_ – didn't want them to leave. "We'll have to find another way out."

That was much easier said than done.

The entire room was void of windows and – as far as Karin could tell – there were no other doors that led outside. The hallway they had first ventured down was absolutely out of the question, though she couldn't remember seeing any windows or other doors down that way at any rate. The room they had just come from had only one window that led into a closed off garden, which only left the upstairs and the room next to the front door. Karin suppressed a shudder when her gaze landed on the sliding door and immediately ruled that option out. It was probably their best bet, but Karin did not look forward to encountering another potentially malicious spirit. That left, of course, the stairs.

"Let's try the upstairs." Karin's voice had grown considerably stronger despite the unease lurking in the pit of her stomach.

"But, Karin-chan…" Yuzu began to protest, pointing out the door she thought her sister had overlooked.

Karin cut Yuzu off before she could continue. "C'mon, Yuzu," she demanded, heading towards the stairs. Afraid of being left behind, Yuzu obediently followed. It was better that she didn't know that there was another dangerous ghost lurking around the house.

Cautiously, the twin sisters ascended the decaying staircase, flinching with every step that creaked beneath them. To their disappointment, they found only one door on the second floor and it seemed to be locked. Sighing in defeat, Karin leaned against the wall and started to reconsider her 'knock-the-front-door-off-its-hinges' plan. It didn't look too sturdy so maybe if she rammed it hard enough…

"What about that door?" Yuzu questioned meekly, pointing back downstairs.

Karin shook her head. "No."

"Why?"

Karin's eyes suddenly widened in realization as a small smile briefly tugged at the corner of her lips. "The key!" She exclaimed quietly, ignoring Yuzu's question and looked down at the small key that was still clutched in the palm of her hand. She turned back to the locked door, trying the key in the lock. It slid easily into the keyhole and clicked into place. After twisting the key, the door slid open effortlessly and Karin hastily stepped inside.

The room they had stepped into was broken up into multiple sections by thin, fragile-looking walls, and sliding doors that had all been left wide open. The open section to their right led to a small storage area filled with kimono boxes and a small dresser, leaving the twins no option but the unadorned room to their left where they found the closest thing to a window that they could have hoped for. The opening in the wall looked much like a larger version of a window one would find in a prison cell only the vertical bars blocking their path to freedom were composed of wood instead of metal.

Karin immediately set about trying to wiggle the wooden bars free, finding them in infuriatingly good shape. "Yuzu, look for some blankets or something we can use for a rope."

Yuzu nodded and began scanning the room for anything they could use, finding nothing in the fairly desolate room. Her gaze landed on a small dresser next to Karin so she started ransacking the drawers only to come up empty handed. Just as she was about to turn away and search elsewhere, a flash of red on top of the dresser caught her eye. Yuzu's fingers brushed over the dusty object, wrapping around the edge of its rectangular shape and lifting it from the wooden surface to give the item closer scrutiny.

It turned out to be a small red notebook that had several of its pages torn out, one of which was folded in half and tucked between the cover and first page of the notebook. Yuzu first unfolded the worn piece of parchment whose faded words were barely legible.

_Masumi... It's me, Miyako.  
I came to look for you.  
Let's go home together.  
Together, we can make it.  
Call for me if you find this.  
I'll be nearby.  
Miss You!_

Yuzu briefly wondered if there was someone else in the village with them but, after examining the paper and the notebook again, realized that both items must have been sitting there for years. The Masumi and Miyako mentioned in the note must have already left a long time ago. It was either that, or…

Yuzu's eyes widened significantly, her hands beginning to tremble.

Earlier, the female ghost she had been pursuing had been calling out for Masumi. Was she Miyako? Was the ghost that killed her Masumi? Why would he kill her, and how did he die in the first place? Yuzu bit her lip nervously, setting the note back on the dresser and reading the contents of the torn notebook.

_Masumi found my note.  
He WAS in the village!  
I can see him soon._

The rest of the page was blank so Yuzu flipped to the next.

_I can't move...  
I'll wait here.  
He'll be back  
He'll find the way out._

Yuzu flipped the page again.

_If he comes back_

The next few pages were blank.

_He came_

A frown crossed Yuzu's face as she flipped through the rest of the small notebook, all of the remaining pages completely blank.

Karin smirked victoriously when she felt one of the wooden bars give slightly when she pushed on it. By the looks of it, she would only have to remove two of the bars – three, tops – to make the opening large enough for the girls to slip through and then they would be able to get out of the house. Turning around to check Yuzu's progress, Karin's heart promptly plummeted to her feet.

"Yuzu! Run!"

Yuzu looked up from the notebook, oblivious to the imminent danger. "Karin-chan? Wh…" She was cut off by two pale hands wrapping tightly around her neck and found herself being hoisted into the air.

Miyako, the woman they had been pursuing earlier, the woman who had been strangled before their very eyes, was crushing the struggling girl's neck and depriving her of oxygen. Yuzu kicked the air weakly, clawing at the specter's hands futilely while desperately gasping for air through her constricted throat. Miyako's hands tightened and Yuzu's struggles grew weaker, tears stinging her eyes. Karin remained in frozen horror for only a second before she returned to her senses and charged angrily at the woman squeezing the life out of her sister. She turned at the last possible moment, slamming her shoulder into Miyako's side and forcing the ghost to lose her grip on Yuzu.

The moment Karin made contact with Miyako, she felt a cold shiver run down her spine, her shoulder suddenly feeling as chilly as if she had rammed into a block of ice. The sensation suddenly vanished, along with the ghost, and Karin crashed painfully into the floor. Despite her sore arm Karin wasted no time in scrambling to her feet and rushing to Yuzu, who was sprawled out on the ground, clutching her neck and coughing miserably. Light bruises were already forming on her neck, which had turned a bright red from the coldness of Miyako's touch.

Karin quickly scanned the room fearfully, more unnerved now that she could not see the malevolent spirit. "C'mon Yuzu," she urged, gently shaking her twin sister's shoulder, "Get up, we have to get out of here."

"It hurts," Yuzu choked out, her body spasming when another coughing fit assaulted her.

Not waiting for it to pass, Karin yanked Yuzu to her feet and slid her arm supportively around her sister's waist. She dragged them both over to the door, stopping and turning sharply when the woman reappeared in her peripheral vision. Expecting to be attacked, Karin was taken aback when she saw that Miyako's back was turned to her, the ghost's shoulders shaking as pitiful sobs wracked her body. Had the woman not attempted to kill her sister, Karin might have felt a shred of sympathy for her. She used the opportunity, instead, to pull Yuzu towards the partition doors they had passed through. She hated leaving their only exit behind, but had little choice in the matter

They were barely a foot away from passing through the last partition door when it slammed shut in their faces. Neither sister had to even check it to know that it was locked. Yuzu hung her head miserably as more tears began forming in her eyes and she leaned heavily against Karin for support, who felt like screaming in frustration. A horrible shiver suddenly shot up the dark haired girl's spine and she quickly shoved Yuzu away from her. Karin turned around just in time to receive a powerful back-hand from Miyako that sent her flying into the wall. A sharp, powerful pain dance briefly in her head before everything around her went dark.

* * *

In an astonishing display of his incomparable gracefulness Ichigo tripped and fell flat on his face at the bottom of the slope, glaring harshly at the traitorous ground. His glowering was interrupted when he spotted a red cap lying in the dirt just to his right. "That's Karin's!" He exclaimed to no one in particular, snatching up the hat and climbing to his feet. His ankles snagged on something and he stumbled forward, nearly crashing back into the ground. Rukia kneeled down on the ground, untangling the offending object from Ichigo's legs.

"It's a bag," she muttered, turning it over in her hands and frowning slightly. It didn't look like any of the bags they had brought with them on the camping trip. "Is someone else here?" She muttered to herself, running her fingers over the black handbag in search of the clasp that held it shut. When she found it, Rukia began rummaging through the bag's meager contents in search of an answer to her question.

"H-hey! You can't just dig through other people's stuff!" Ichigo's protests fell on deaf ears as Rukia tugged out a small wad of papers and started looking them over.

It turned out to be two news clippings folded around an aged photograph of a man and woman that both looked to be in their mid-twenties. The man had black, neatly cut hair with thin bangs framing his dark eyes, and wore a beige button up shirt and jeans. The woman standing next to him had black, shoulder-length hair and wore a green skirt and white denim tank top with a few pockets on the front.

Turning her attention to the other papers, Rukia read the first news clipping aloud. "With the start of construction for Minakami Dam approaching, Masumi Makimura (26), a geological surveyor dispatched to the area, has gone missing. Mr. Makimura went to the area to investigate the site that would be submerged once the dam was built, but hasn't been heard from for five days." She checked the date, a contemplative frown tugged at the corners of her lips. According to the article most of the forest, including their campsite by the river, should have been completely flooded a long time ago.

Rukia set the clipping aside, reading the next one. "The search for Masumi Makimura (26), the surveyor missing since the fourth of this month, came to a close yesterday. Mr. Makimura had been helping to conduct a geological survey for Minakami Dam. As of yesterday, he has been missing for ten days." Rukia stood, subconsciously brushing the dirt off of her dress. "They're both dated almost twenty years ago." Her scowl deepened at the thought that an unauthorized barrier of this caliber had gone unnoticed by Soul Society for so long. Curiously she turned her attention back to the photo and flipped it over to find the names Miyako and Masumi scrawled on the back in pen.

Ichigo growled impatiently. "So that's been sitting there for a couple of decades. Great. Good to know. Can we go now?"

Rukia casually tossed the papers and the photo on top of the discarded bag before casting a light glare at the taller Shinigami. "This means that this barrier has been here longer than you have been alive, and Soul Society hasn't even noticed," she snapped. "This isn't a situation we can approach so casually, especially since neither of us can become Shinigami right now."

Mouth hanging open uselessly, Ichigo had been about to question her statement when he had a sudden epiphany. His Shinigami license and Kon were at home. Her glove and Chappy had been lost in the river. "Ah…well," he stammered inanely before fiercely crossing his arms over his chest. "Who cares about that crap!? Let's just find Yuzu and Karin and get the hell out of here." His fist tightened around the red cap in his hand as he spun around and promptly stormed into the village. "Yuzu! Karin!" He called out, listening intently for a response.

Ichigo stopped in his tracks, feeling Rukia's hand land on his shoulder, a silence falling between them. It was unusual for any form of comfort to come from the small Shinigami, unless it involved violence, so Ichigo decided he _must_ be looking awfully depressed. Carefully reconstructing his normal scowl and mustering up the most stable tone of voice he could manage – considering the circumstances – he mumbled, "I'm fine."

Rukia stepped a few feet past him, surveying the area. "I never said you weren't," she replied, though Ichigo barely even registered that she had spoken.

If Rukia was standing in _front_ of him, then why did he still feel her hand on his shoulder?

A bone-chilling, mischievous laugh echoed right next to his ear and Ichigo spun around, the weight immediately vanishing from his shoulder when he turned. The orange haired teen frowned upon seeing that the area behind him was unoccupied, absently brushing away the lingering cold left on his shoulder by the mysterious hand. He looked back at Rukia, who was completely unaware that anything was amiss and had paused in front of the first house just off of the sloping path. Quickly reminding himself that he didn't care what kind of weird crap was going on as long as his sisters weren't hurt, Ichigo shook off the incident.

"Would they have gone into one of the houses?"

Ichigo shrugged, believing his sisters were smart enough to know better than to enter an unstable looking building. Of course, he had also been sure they were smart enough to know better than to wander off by themselves, so he could be wrong. He approached the door and met resistance when he tried to twist the knob. He alternated between tugging on the door and pushing against it before ultimately giving up. If he couldn't open it, then his sisters certainly couldn't be in there. Rukia moved further down the road where it intersected with another path, looking down one street and then the other before shrugging off her backpack and digging through its contents.

"If we split up, we should be able to…" The backpack slipped from her fingers, some of its contents spilling out across the ground.

"Rukia!" The dark haired Shinigami lurched forward, barely managing to stay upright from the agonizing blow to her back.

Ichigo, temporarily frozen in shock, stared in wide-eyed horror at his wounded companion and the sickle wielding spirit that had literally appeared out of nowhere and plunge his blade into her back. It had happened so quickly, Ichigo hadn't even been given the opportunity to warn her. Seeing that the man was already moving to strike again, Ichigo immediately snapped out of his brief stupor. Before he had a chance to bring his weapon down on the Shinigami a second time, Ichigo had darted forward and latched onto the spirit's raised arm. He quickly twisted around and flipped the spirit over his shoulder onto the ground.

A chill ran through the parts of Ichigo's arm and shoulder that had made contact with the ghost. He flexed his cold fingers experimentally, examining them curiously, and became even more puzzled when the sensation suddenly faded. He had come in contact with ghosts before, but nothing like that had ever happened. The orange haired Shinigami wasn't given much time to ponder the subject.

"Ichigo!" Another ghost that had appeared behind the orange haired teen, this one bearing a long wooden pole, was stopped in mid-swing when Ichigo thrust his foot into the spirit's gut and sent him flying a few feet before crashing into the ground.

A third ghost carrying a torch ran at Rukia, wildly swinging the blazing club at her. The raven haired girl side-stepped the assault and drove the heel of her foot into the man's back, knocking him to the ground. She hunched over a few seconds later, the pain in her back intensifying significantly.

All three spirits slowly clambered to their feet, advancing on the duo yet again.

"What the hell is going on?" Ichigo grumbled, moving into a fighting stance. "Why are they attacking us?" His stance dropped slightly when the three men turned their attention towards Rukia, hatred evident in their blank eyes. Without any warning they surged forward, each swinging their respective weapon, intent on maiming the dark haired Shinigami.

Ichigo quickly moved to intercept them, clothes-lining the torch bearer and using his momentum to spin and roundhouse kick the sickle bearer. The third ghost ignored him, swinging the wooden pole in a wide arc at Rukia. She quickly ducked under the attack and sweep kicked the pole bearer. She too was bewildered when her shin felt chilled the moment it had connected with the ghost's leg but was soon distracted when she tried to stand up.

Searing pain ripped across her injured back, informing Rukia that dropping to the ground might not have been the best idea as the throbbing prevented her from climbing to her feet. She hissed as an even more agonizing jolt shot through her back when she tried to stand again and her legs crumpled beneath her. Ichigo quickly moved protectively in front of Rukia and she scowled at his back even though it was herself that she was mad at. She had never felt this sort of pain before, not from a Hollow, Human, or Whole. Rather than a burning sensation, the injury felt as frigid as the spirit's touch and locked up her back muscles whenever she tried to move.

"This village is old," Rukia stated in response to Ichigo's earlier question, shifting cautiously into a different position that might make it easier to stand. "They might be attacking us because they have ties to this place, and don't want us to disturb their home." Rukia had another, more probable, theory for the ghost's hostility, but she didn't want to cause Ichigo any unnecessary worry if she happened to be wrong - Rukia seriously hoped she was wrong.

Ichigo frowned grimly at her response, his thoughts immediately drifting to his younger sisters. His fists tightened until his knuckles turned white as images of their beaten and battered bodies flooded his thoughts. If the spirits inhabiting the village were this spiteful, his sisters might already be…

"Pay attention, Idiot!"

Rukia's shouts brought Ichigo crashing back to his senses just in time to duck under the sickle that had been swung at him. The orange haired Shinigami lashed out, catching the sickle bearer in the gut with his fist, forcing the spirit back several feet and causing him to topple over. He happened to collide with the pole bearing spirit and both ghosts were temporarily knocked out of commission.

Ichigo glared down at the two specters, tensing when he realized that the third, torch bearing specter was not in his line of sight. A piercing cold hand suddenly wrapped around his neck, lifting him clear off the ground, throwing him up against the nearest wall, and slamming his knee into the Shinigami's gut. Ichigo found himself gasping painfully for breath as the wind was knocked cleanly out of him and his throat constricted from the ghost's frigid touch. He dropped to his knees, breathless.

Rukia tried in vain to move her nearly unresponsive legs, the effects of her injury only growing worse as the seconds ticked by. She only had a moment to wonder why the pain was intensifying when a wooden pole connected solidly with the side of her head and white flecks of light exploded before her eyes as she was knocked onto her side. Rukia lay still for a few moments, completely dumbfounded and vaguely aware that someone was yelling her name. The pole bearing spirit had been laying flat on the ground only seconds ago and he had been so slow before. How had he managed to approach her and strike at her before she even noticed his presence?

The Shinigami pushed herself up off the ground slightly, turning to glower at the spirit, and found that the other two spirits were advancing on her as well. Silently cursing her gigai, Rukia scowled up at the pole bearer, who had lifted his weapon over his head. When it bore down on her, she blocked the pole with her shin. Ignoring the throbbing pain, she twisted her leg around the rod and managed to yank it from the specter's grip. Moments later, she was forced to roll away to avoid the sickle that was aimed at her heart and cursed when she realized that she had left the ghost's weapon behind.

In a flash of orange, Ichigo returned to the fight and knocked all three spirits to the ground once again. In spite of herself, Rukia mentally sighed in relief while she scowled at the ghosts as they righted themselves and raised their weapons again. It wasn't until that moment that she noticed that something was off about the three specters and mentally slapped her forehead for not seeing it sooner. Managing to raise herself up onto her knees, Rukia held her hands out in front of her, focusing until she felt the familiar surge of energy dance through her fingertips.

"Ichigo, move!" She commanded, just as the three spirits began advancing on them.

"Wha?" Ichigo responded vacantly, looking over his shoulder at her.

"Hadou number thirty-three!" She called out, blue light beginning to gather in the palm of her hand. Ichigo eagerly and hastily stepped aside. "Soukatsui!" Streaks of blue fire leapt from the palm of Rukia's hand and tore into all three spirits, easily rending them asunder. Both Shinigami stared at the vanishing spirits, each letting out a breath they didn't even know they were holding.

Rukia returned to her previous task of trying to stand up, though she didn't even need to bother. Ichigo gripped the collar on the back of her dress, lifted her off the ground, and she found herself facing his intense glare. "What?" She demanded, her perplexed gaze quickly shifting to match his glare as she crossed her arms over her chest. Her intimidating image was ruined, however, by the fact that she was still dangling about a foot off the ground. Ichigo ignored her, using his free hand to turn her head slightly to examine the side of her head where she had been struck. Strangely, the blow hadn't left any mark and she didn't seem to be showing any symptoms of-

"What are you doing?" Rukia demanded, flicking Ichigo in the forehead.

He swatted her hand away irritably. "I'm _trying_ to see whether or not you have a concussion," he growled, expression suddenly turning blank. "Can you even get a concussion?"

"A what?"

Question answered, Ichigo carefully set her back down on her feet. "Jeez, be more careful ya' idiot," he grumbled, turning away and absently scratching the back of his head. "Why were they after you anyway?" Rukia looked puzzled.

"What do you mean? They weren't…" she trailed off slightly, contemplating his words.

"You didn't notice?" A mixture of annoyance and incredulity inhabited Ichigo's scowl. "When those _things_ showed up, they attacked _you_ first. They only attacked me when I got in the way, and they weren't even aiming to kill me. It was _you_ they were trying to kill." He paused and looked around, as if anticipating another attack, before continuing. "And those damn things appeared out of _nowhere_. I didn't even have any time to…"

"Just appeared?" Rukia cut him off, her eyebrows furrowing together in confusion. No spirit could 'just appear' despite what many humans thought. They had to walk around – or float, on occasion – just like everyone else. Only Hollows could appear out of nowhere, and that was because they were crossing into the dimension from Hueco Muendo. No ordinary spirit had that kind of ability and Ichigo knew it just as well as she did.

Then again, she had already established that these weren't ordinary spirits.

A thought suddenly crossed Ichigo's mind and he quickly turned back to Rukia, alarmed. "Aren't you not supposed to do that…kidou thing to regular spirits?" He asked, pulling Rukia from her musings.

"Hmm? Ah, you're right. Shinigami are not permitted to use kidou on Wholes because it might damage or destroy the soul." Before Ichigo could have an episode and start ranting, she quickly explained. "But they were not Wholes."

Ichigo had opened his mouth to chew her out and was left staring, agape, at her. "What?"

"You didn't notice?" She mocked his earlier tone, eliciting a scowl from her companion. "None of them had chains of fate, or holes in their chests. They aren't Hollows, and they aren't Wholes, but they are definitely spirits," she explained, a troubled look crossing over her face. "I have a guess as to what they might be, but…" she trailed off, reaching into her pocket and retrieving her cell phone. "Soul Society needs to know about this. The sooner the problem is resolved, the safer your sisters will be."

Rukia punched in the familiar number, already going over what she would say to her captain when she got through. She held the phone to her ear, quickly yanking it away when a sharp crackling tore into her ear drum. The quick movement caused her forgotten injury to flare up and she nearly dropped her phone. Twisting her arm uncomfortably behind her back, Rukia felt around for the injury and frowned when she felt no blood or gash. Seeing her expression, Ichigo moved to check the wound only to find that there wasn't even a tear in her dress; it was like the scythe never pierced her flesh, yet it still caused her pain.

"What the hell…" He muttered.

Looking down at her unbruised, yet throbbing, shin substantiated Rukia's suspicions. There would be no soothing the pain away; she would simply have to wait until her 'injuries' faded on their own. It was something she'd only heard from her professors at the academy, something she'd only seen in a textbook, and it confirmed the nature of the spirits that had just attacked them.

"Their attacks strike the soul, not the body," she told Ichigo. "In my Shinigami form, I'd be able to heal it, but…" She quickly trailed off, too late to spare her companion the guilt trip. His outward appearance suggested indifference, but inside he was kicking himself all over again for looking her gikongan and glove in the river. "It'll heal quickly enough," she lied. "I don't need to waste my energy on such a small thing." Ichigo didn't believe her for a second.

He decided to change the subject. "So if they weren't Wholes then what were they?"

Rukia's expression turned grave. "Demons."

_I have to get back…  
The ritual…  
For the village  
We…  
We were born for this purpose…  
Destiny..._

_ - Mayu Amakura_

A/N: And there it is. I'm a little iffy about the second part of this chapter so I'd really like to know how well (or bad) you think I did. I'm pretty sure I've got Yuzu and Karin down pretty good, but it's really hard to guess how Rukia or Ichigo will react to certain situations and what their interactions would consist of...so let me know if they seem OOC.


	4. Chapter Four

Obligatory Author's Note: Woohoo, I think I found some plot holes. Not within the story itself, mind you, but I think there's some stuff in here that doesn't really…_coincide_ with the manga or the anime. So, I would like to use this time to say this: Anything that does not coincide with the manga or anime…is AU. I claim artistic license. BUT, no one seems to have pointed anything out to me yet, so I guess the mistakes are subtle enough.

**The Village**

**Chapter Four**

_"I came to this hill to take a look at the gate I passed through when I entered the village. But when I tried to find it, the ruined gate was buried under trees and other flora. I can't find the path that we used to come here…"_

_ - Masumi Makimura_

Demons.

The Shinigami textbook description of a demon was a soul that committed horrible sins in life that could not be washed away by a zanpakuto. They were souls like the Shrieker – a merciless killer in life as well as in death – who, unlike many humans thought, retained their human form. They were judged not to deserve the afterlife that Soul Society offered because of their crimes and cast into Hell. Thinking about how terrible the poorest district in Rukongai had been, Rukia couldn't even begin to imagine the horrors that one would see in Hell.

Rukia never thought that in all her existence as a Shinigami that she would ever encounter even one demon. Hell's security was beyond even that of the Seireitei, and the only portal in or out was the one that appeared at the moment a sinner had passed on. To say that one demon escaped from Hell once every millennium would be an overstatement, yet here she had encountered three at once. By the stench of the place she'd be more than willing to bet there were dozens more lurking around, their existence made oblivious to Soul Society by the strong barrier that surrounded it. Rukia had never heard of such a place existing and told Ichigo as much.

As she had suspected, the orange haired Shinigami was less than pleased to discover that his sisters were lost in an old village full of demons hell-bent on killing anyone that ventured into their territory. Seeing the concern, fury, and determination in his eyes told Rukia that even though she needed to leave the barrier in order to contact Soul Society via her phone (if the static was any indication), there was no way Ichigo would follow her as long as he was still conscious. The only reason that was problematic was because – in his current state – he had no real way of properly defending himself and she didn't have the time right then to teach him a kidou.

Instead, she gathered up the scattered contents of her bag, hastily stuffed them back into the container, and tossed it at Ichigo. "I need to call Soul Society, but I need to head out of the village to do it. You keep looking," she stated in a tone that left no room for argument.

Ichigo examined the contents of the bag which consisted mainly of food and a rather impressive first aid kit. "I don't need this," he told her, zipping up the small blue sack and holding it out to the short Shinigami.

"Yuzu and Karin might," she retorted, turning on her heel and heading back the way they had come. She paused, adding as an afterthought: "Don't get into any unnecessary fights, Ichigo. In your current state, you'll only wind up getting injured." She could practically feel the scowl burning into her back.

"Worry about yourself," he called back, turning away and crossing his arms over his chest. "I ain't gonna be held responsible when we go back home and I have to explain to my family why you didn't come back with us."

Rukia looked over her shoulder at him and smirked. "Likewise."

And that was how Rukia found herself standing at the base of Misono Hill – or so the small sign next to it claimed – staring up at the lit torches and stone monument at the top. She had a sneaking suspicion that she would not be let out of the village so easily, but it was not a mere hunch that had caused her to pause. The pain from her wounds had not subsided and they weren't likely to give her any sort of reprieve anytime soon which meant that her trip up the side of the rather steep hill was not going to be a pleasant one. Her theory was quickly proven correct when she started up the path, wincing as nearly every step she took resulted in pain shooting up her spine. She had tried to go slowly and carefully so as not to further aggravate her injuries, but it seemed that no matter what she tried the results were almost exactly the same.

Abandoning the notion of taking small careful steps – since it wasn't working, anyway – Rukia focused on getting to the top as quickly as possible, which proved to be one of her better ideas. After allowing herself a small break, the Shinigami headed towards the path leading back into the forest and promptly froze in her tracks. In the few minutes that had passed since she and Ichigo had left Misono Hill, the red Shinto gate marking the road out of the village had simply collapsed into a pile of rotting wood. Not only that, but the forest itself seemed to have swallowed the path beyond and created an impenetrable wall of foliage. At this point, an ordinary human would have been completely thwarted in any attempts to leave, and by the look of things it seemed that the dark haired Shinigami wouldn't have such an easy time breaking through the barrier either.

Rukia directly approached the wrecked Shinto gate, lifting her foot to step over the obstruction and she simply stopped. She had met no resistance yet her body refused to move beyond the pile of deteriorated wood. Stepping backwards was not a problem and her gigai seemed more than eager to oblige but when she pressed forward again she found that her limbs were completely unwilling to cooperate; trying to move forward felt about as effective as trying to force herself through a brick wall. It seemed that she would not be able to leave as long as the invisible wall was still intact. Moving away again, Rukia lifted her hands and stepped forward until her palms were pressed firmly against the barrier's edge, letting her eyes drift shut. She reached out with her kidou and attempted to dismantle the invisible wall, only for her reiatsu to be easily pushed aside.

"No," she muttered, stepping away and glaring at the barrier, "it's not pushing me away. I can't even approach it." After feeling the sheer power sustaining the wall, Rukia very much doubted that Lieutenant Hinamori Momo – arguably the most talented kidou user among the Gotei Thirteen Shinigami - could deconstruct it from the inside without a few hours of hard work. At this point, she would be surprised if even Inoue Orihime could manage to slip back through. "It can't be helped." Rukia frowned and crossed her arms over her chest, examining the line of foliage to look for any possible breaks in the barrier or an alternate path out of the village, though she doubted one would be found.

Her head turned, half expecting her eyes to be deceiving her when she had seen the tell-tale bare patch of ground signifying a path in her peripheral vision. Closer scrutiny revealed that she had, indeed, seen a path and it seemed to lead beyond the barrier. Spirits lifted slightly, Rukia made her way over to the dark path which quickly gave way to a rope bridge she hadn't even seen until her foot had made contact with the first board. It creaked uncertainly beneath her weight and she quickly leapt back and squinted into the darkness. The dark, cloudy sky above and the heavy mist settling in around her made visibility almost nil, yet she hadn't truly noticed how dark it was until she had strayed from the flickering torches on the hill.

With a heavy sigh – she _really_ didn't want to be wasting her energy like this – and muttering the necessary incantation, Rukia used an altered version of her Soukatsui spell to create a light in the palm of her hand. It immediately cast a bluish glow over a small area of the path, but while it solved the problem of not being able to see her own two feet in front of her, the raven haired girl quickly discovered that she could no longer see anything beyond the circle of light her kidou had created. Casting her irritated gaze to the ground Rukia began to cautiously make her way across the unstable bridge, stepping over questionable looking boards and any gaps that she came across.

When her foot came in contact with solid ground, Rukia slowly let her kidou burn out into nothingness to allow her eyes to adjust to the dim light of the area. Ironically enough, the path that she hoped would lead her out of the village led to a literal dead end: A graveyard. She scowled lightly at the headstones and crossed her arms over her chest as a chill ran up her throbbing spine. For some reason, it seemed to be much colder on this side of the bridge than the other and the ominous fog weaving its way around the tombstones combined with the unsettling moan of the wind whipping through the trees was almost enough to rattle the Shinigami's nerves…almost.

Rukia stepped further into the small graveyard and suppressed a shiver as Goosebumps danced across her flesh; it took her a few moments to realize that it shouldn't be nearly so easy for her gigai to become so cold. It wasn't designed so human-like as to be _that_ inconvenient. That alone told the raven haired girl that she should leave the area immediately, though she found her gaze being drawn by a glint of light in the distance. Shortly afterwards, her feet began to trail after her gaze and carried her past a row of tombstones to an altar marked 'Tsuchihara'. The faint sparkle had been quickly revealed to her as a small, intricately designed glass bottle over half full of a clear liquid that she assumed to be water. Upon reaching out and delicately touching the fragile container, she found it to be cool to the touch but not unpleasantly so.

Lifting the small item from its place on the altar Rukia gave the clear liquid further scrutiny to the point where she started to feel thirsty from simply staring at it. It still appeared to be nothing but ordinary water, so she carefully pulled out the small glass stopper at the top and cautiously sniffed at the fluid only to find that it was completely odorless. After a few more moments of skeptically eyeing the water, Rukia dipped her pinky into the small opening and tilted the bottle just enough to splash a few drops onto her skin. When nothing interesting happened, she took the tiniest of sips and – as she suspected – it was nothing but ordinary water. She waited a few more moments to be certain that it wouldn't have any adverse side-effects before taking another small sip. Confident that the contents of the bottle wouldn't kill her, she ended up drinking the entire thing before setting it back down on the altar.

After remaining stationary for a few moments, Rukia briefly began to wonder if she would be glowing right then if she had been in her Shinigami form. Mere seconds after the petite girl had finished the last of the water, she suddenly felt as if a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders and the slight fatigue that had only begun to set in evaporated completely. Vaguely she imagined this was what it would feel like to consume one of those energy pills that members of the fourth division carried with them. She took a step backwards, quickly aware of the absence of pain in her back, leg, and neck. In fact, her slightly muddled senses felt a good deal sharper; enough so that she actually checked to make sure she hadn't inadvertently floated out of her gigai. She had never felt this unrestricted when she was trapped within a flesh and blood body.

A cold chill suddenly swept through Rukia's body and her heart promptly plummeted to her stomach when a raspy voice echoed roughly in her ear. "Traitor…die!" Before she could react Rukia found a frigid metal staff being held tightly against her throat, the two wrinkly hands holding the rod in place tugging her backwards in an attempt to pin her and crush her trachea. Rukia quickly turned before the spirit could accomplish its goal, slamming her palm into his gut and wordlessly sending a bolt of white lightning through him. He was easily flung backwards – straight through a few of the headstones – and promptly vanished. Already, Rukia's cobalt eyes were scanning the area, knowing full well that she had not yet dispatched the demon. She had felt in those brief moments that this demon was stronger than the three she and Ichigo had encountered earlier.

When the spirit did not reappear, Rukia moved cautiously out into the main area of the cemetery, constantly spinning in slow circles as she walked so that the ghost wouldn't be able to catch her by surprise again. She caught a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye and unhesitantly fired a Shakkahou in the direction of the spirit, missing by mere millimeters and taking out an unsuspecting tree in the process. "Perish for your transgression!" The same haunting, raspy voice met Rukia's ears and she turned just in time to side step the jingling staff that was swung at her. The ghost, a priestly looking man with his face covered by a shroud, vanished once again and left the Shinigami to try and seek him out again. She found him a few seconds later attempting to sneak up behind her again, and fired another kidou that missed when he nimbly floated out of the way.

The irritating battle continued on in much the same manner for several minutes. The demon would vanish from sight, reappear – often directly behind Rukia – to attack, dodge the blasts of kidou that she fired at him, and vanish once more. During the slightly lengthy battle the Shinigami had taken out a few trees, left a few smoking holes in the ground, and began to use her kidou more sparingly when a stray spell nearly took out the bridge (which was her only means of getting back out of the graveyard.)

Rukia cursed under her breath, glaring at the veiled priest as he circled her; fading in and out of sight from time to time. If she could only get him to hold still…a smirk suddenly crossed her face as she came up with an idea, even though she mentally smacked herself in the forehead for not thinking of it sooner. Lifting her hands and not taking her gaze away from the demon for one moment, she began chanting: "Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini! Look upon yourself with horror and claw out your own throat!" The priest vanished again, but she could already guess where he would pop up next. She spun around just as the demon appeared behind her to lash out with his staff and she lifted her hands.

"Bakudo number three: Geki!" A red light encompassed the man, completely paralyzing him from head to toe and Rukia wasted no time in calling out her next spell. "Hadou number thirty-three: Soukatsui!" Blue streaks of fire lanced out from the palm of her hand and tore viciously through the demon who faded into nothingness. This time, she knew for certain that he wouldn't be coming back. The moment that the veiled priest had vanished, the once biting cold seemed to ease up considerably; that, however, didn't prevent Rukia from leaving as soon as possible. It wasn't like she had any reason to stay, since the path had not led her to an exit and a quick phone call confirmed that the barrier was still blocking her spirit phone's signal. All she could really do at this point was get back to Ichigo, help him find his sisters, and then try to find a way out of the village.

At least her trip to the cemetery hadn't been a total loss, she thought, remembering the strange water that seemed to cast off her pain.

* * *

_ "Masumi…is that you?" The woman called softly, afraid of drawing something _else's_ attention with her voice. Miyako had been spending the past few days – at least, they felt like days, though she couldn't be entirely certain of how long it had really been – waiting in that awful place for him to return from the 'Kurosawa house' as he called it. For so long she had searched for him, and when she finally found him he had left again to find a way out of the village._

_ "I know the answers are in that house," he had told her. "Stay here, where it's safer." Somehow, he managed to leave her behind despite her violent protests. She didn't care where she was safest; she just didn't want to be alone in this place any longer. She wouldn't even mind dying as long as it was with him._

_ Just now, she was positive she had heard him enter the house but he had not headed for the upstairs room she had cooped herself up in. She paused in the journal she had been writing in shortly after she heard the front door shut and raced out to the stairs to meet him. She had been just in time to see him vanish down the hallway leading to the back room, which made her frown. Miyako never stayed in the back room, not since she had seen those hands crawling through the lattice of the room beyond the outdoor garden. Somehow, she'd always felt more at ease in the room upstairs. Pushing those thoughts aside, she hurried downstairs and started down the hallway, catching a glimpse of her boyfriend turning the corner at the end of the corridor._

_ "Masumi?" She called again, feeling a chill run up her spine. She moved slowly across the floor even though she had no reason to fear. This was her fiancé, the one she had come to save when everyone else stopped looking the one that wanted to protect her more than anything, the one who loved her, the one who would never hurt her; she had no reason at all to be afraid of him._

_ Still, Miyako could not bring herself to hurry to him and only felt her anxiety building with each step she took. Something felt horribly wrong. Why did he look so pale? Why did he not respond to her voice? Why was he leading her to the room that she hated most? Why was he bleeding…oh God, he was hurt! She turned the corner, but saw nothing other than the door at the end of the hallway and knew immediately where he had gone. Miyako still moved forward at a sluggish pace, as if warning her of something that her eyes could not perceive, but she could not find it in her heart to stop and turn away._

_ Masumi needed her._

_ She finally found herself at the end of the corridor, her hand resting lightly on the door handle. "Masumi, are you there?" She asked quietly, slowly opening the door and peering inside. He stood beside the torn partition screen, lacerations decorating his back and legs and face and his eyes…his head turned and those blank white eyes stared at her and all she could see within them was malice and she couldn't even bear to move away when he reached out to snatch her life from her._

_ Miyako was vaguely aware of being thrown against the ground while Masumi's icy fingers wrapped around her neck and cut off her screaming – she hadn't even been aware that she had started screaming to begin with. Her body struggled and fought a losing battle against her inevitable death and she screamed her throat raw, but it was all a blur to the woman that was slowly losing consciousness. All she could see was Masumi's dead, white eyes filled with rage while he throttled the life out of her until her eyes rolled back into her skull. Somehow, she had made some small amount of piece in knowing that she had at least one wish granted._

_ She had been allowed to die with him._

Karin awoke with a start, hands flying to her throat and gasping desperately for air. Due to her violently swimming head, it took the dark haired girl several seconds to realize that she could breathe perfectly fine. It took her nearly a minute after that to properly sort out her thoughts – more accurately, to sort out Miyako's memories and separate them from her own. That done, she took in her vaguely familiar surroundings, finding herself sprawled across the ground with a throbbing bump on the back of her head and tried to remember what had happened to her.

Being attacked by the ghost she could now identify as Miyako…

Trying to run away and being trapped in the room…

Pushing Yuzu out of the way and being flung into a wall…

"Yuzu…?"

Karin's eyes widened in fear when she realized that her sister was nowhere in sight.

"Yuzu!" She shouted frantically while scrambling to her feet, heart pounding fiercely against her ribcage. Karin immediately began searching the area, half-expecting to find her twin lying in an unconscious heap on the ground with blood leaking out of her head. After searching through the entire room and coming up with nothing, Karin bolted out to the stairs so quickly that she nearly flung herself over the railing by accident. The wood groaned irritably under her weight and she quickly pulled back.

The door below creaked open immediately drawing the young girl's attention and eliciting a gasp of shock from her. Standing on the lower level of the house on the opposite side of the room was Yuzu, pulling open the front door and moving to step outside.

The same front door that wouldn't budge even an inch earlier.

"Yuzu, wait!" She called out, fearing her twin would simply ignore her voice as she had been earlier. Much to her relief, Yuzu stopped and turned to look back at Karin. That relief almost immediately vanished the moment she had glimpsed the hollowness of her younger sister's eyes, freezing her in place. Yuzu had managed to hear her voice, but would not heed it. There was a much stronger voice calling out to her at the moment; Karin could hear it as well now, but it held no sway over her.

Yuzu, was another story.

"I have to go," the auburn haired girl stated vacantly, turning away and heading outside. The door slammed shut behind her and the fear that it would lock again motivated Karin to shake off her previous stupor.

In the blink of an eye – she was certain she must have flown down those steps – Karin was on the first floor and rushing towards the door to yank it open. It flung open so easily, the doorknob ended up sticking in the wall next to it, keeping the door permanently lodged open. She stumbled over a few loose planks that had been carelessly strewn across the floor of the foyer and latched onto the lattice for support. Immediately, she felt those cold eyes upon her again – the same that had sent shivers up her spine the moment she and Yuzu had first entered the house. Karin didn't dare look at her a second time.

The woman laughed – a bone chilling thing laced with madness – and her voice wafted through the lattice and to Karin's ears. "I've been waiting for you. Are you leaving?" She asked in a whisper, more disturbing giggles permeating the air. Karin felt her fear ebb slightly, slowly being replaced with pure fury. This woman – this _thing_ – was the reason they were here; the voice that was pulling Yuzu away from her. More enraged that afraid, the dark haired girl met the woman's gaze with a vicious glare, swallowing the lump that had risen in her throat.

"Fuck you," she bit out, before hurrying out of the house.

Karin skidded to a halt outside, looking around wildly for the auburn haired girl while trying not to let her fear and worry take hold of her. "Yuzu! She cried out, feeling a heavy weight settle over her heart. After a few moments of indecision, she headed to the left, knowing full well that the path leading out of the village led to the right. Whatever had possessed Yuzu clearly did not want her to leave.

A flicker of red caught Karin's attention and drew her gaze to the crimson butterfly that was luring her sister away from her again. It felt as though her heart nearly stopped. "Yuzu, don't!" She cried out frantically, pushing her wobbling legs to move forward. She chased after her sister, running faster than she ever had before in her life.

Somehow, it wasn't enough.

Yuzu managed to stay a good distance ahead of Karin, every corner she turned carrying her further and further ahead of the dark haired girl. Every step she took seemed equivalent to five of Karin's, despite the fact that she was only walking, and the voices only pulled her further into the village and further away from her sister. Karin, meanwhile, felt as though the very air itself was working against her. Every breath she took felt thick and weighed heavily on her lungs, supplying no nourishment to her tiring legs.

After turning a few corners, Yuzu had reached a dead end, her only means of continuing a pair of heavy-looking doors barricading her path. With barely any effort, she pushed them open and paused. Now that Yuzu had stopped, Karin was finally able to close the distance between herself and her twin. She called out repeatedly to the young girl, hoping that Yuzu would be able to hear her voice and pause for just a few more seconds. If Karin could get her sister to wait for just another moment she would be able to catch up and pull her back. They could go back the way they had come, get back to their family, and forget this horrible place ever existed.

Yuzu passed through the gate and the doors slammed shut behind her.

Karin bounced painfully off of the solid wooden gate and began beating her fists repeatedly against the hard surface. "Yuzu! YUZU!" She screamed, ignoring the pain her hands were enduring. She slammed against the door as hard as she could, accomplishing nothing more than hurting her arm, and began alternating between kicking the door and throwing her full weight against it. Not long into the process, she had nearly exhausted herself and sank into a useless heap on the ground. Karin didn't even notice the tears blurring her vision when her heart plummeted into her stomach. The door was locked and Yuzu was gone.

Hairs suddenly rising on the back of her neck, the only things that saved Karin from being decapitated were quick reflexes and no small amount of luck. She quickly found herself tumbling away from the door and scrambling to her feet, finding her path to Yuzu now being blocked by two sickle wielding spirits. Karin stood her ground, though neither of the ghosts moved to attack. They simply shifted back and forth as though daring her to try and approach the gate.

"Yae, has returned," one of them spoke, though he seemed to be only commenting to himself. "But it is too late, we are already damned…"

When Karin did not back down, he took a few steps forward and slashed warningly at the air in front of him. She took a tentative step backwards and nothing more. She couldn't possibly leave Yuzu behind, but even if she did manage to make it past the two spirits the gate was securely locked. Karin backed off several more steps when the other ghost charged at her, swinging his blade at her furiously. It wasn't fair, but it couldn't be helped – she couldn't save Yuzu if she died. With a heavy heart, Karin turned and ran away.

* * *

Ichigo had opted to start from one side of the village and work his way to the other, starting with the path that led to the leftmost half of the dilapidated town. He hadn't, however, planned on searching any of the houses themselves just yet. Most of the doors seemed locked or barricaded, on the verge of falling apart, or lacking an entrance due to severe disrepair, so he doubted his younger sisters would have gone into any of the buildings. If they had…that was the one flaw in his plan. The village itself didn't seem to be too big, though, so he would know for certain soon enough.

Calling out for them every five seconds or so was an idea that he quickly abandoned. For some reason, his voice didn't seem to carry very far, sounding as though it had died barely a yard away from his mouth. Running also turned into a bad idea as the visibility lessened, due to the lack of torches and abundance of clouds, and he started stumbling over unseen bumps on the path. The last thing he needed at the moment was a sprained or twisted ankle in a village full of malicious demons. Not long after he had slowed his pace, Ichigo silently commended himself for his decision.

Just up ahead, he found that the wide path was cut off by a creek and the road curved off to the right to follow the flow of the water. A combination of the low visibility and his incredibly poor luck would have found him falling into the river, probably cracking his skull open on one of the large stones protruding from the water; especially since the unidentifiable object his foot had just bumped into would make a fine obstruction to trip over. Kneeling to feel around for the object, and wishing he had a flashlight, Ichigo's fingers grasped the item and he brought it close to his face to examine while he walked. Even still, he couldn't see what exactly the object was, and trying to figure it out simply by touch proved only to further confuse him. Whatever it was, it had a very odd shape.

Most of the object was smooth with slightly rounded edges that made up the rough form of a box and felt as though it were made out of some kind of metal. As his hands moved across the item, his finger found an indented square that felt like a button. Pressing down, Ichigo immediately regretted this as a flash of light exploded from the small device and temporarily blinded the Shinigami representative, causing him to drop the small box. After a few seconds of trying to blink away the colored spots dancing in front of his eyes, Ichigo glared at the offending object lying on the ground and quickly came to the conclusion that it was a camera. Judging by its size and awkward shape, it was probably at least twice as old as he was. It didn't even have a flashbulb on it which only led Ichigo to wonder where the light had come from.

"Onee-san!" A young girl's panicked shout coupled with racing footsteps made Ichigo start, his russet eyes darting around the area for the source of the noise. While the voice had sounded fairly close by, the surrounding area was completely vacant despite the fact that the footsteps were growing louder.

Ichigo suddenly found his gaze drawn to the device lying at his feet, his eyebrows furrowed together in concentration. Though it couldn't have been possible, there was also no doubt in his mind that the sounds were coming from the camera. As he stared at the object, an array of other noises faded into existence, intermingling into a garble of incoherent sound. Haunting laughter, not unlike that of the mischievous giggling he had heard earlier, echoed through the area and intermingled with a multitude of screams and quiet murmurings.

While somewhat horrified, Ichigo found himself inexplicably drawn closer to the camera and beset with an overwhelming urge to pick the device back up. Kneeling, he cautiously stretched out his hand, the voices growing louder as his fingers gradually inched closer. The moment he made contact, everything fell into silence.

_Mio rushed down the path as fast as her legs could carry her, calling out for her sister between her heavy gasps for breath. She was unaccustomed to strenuous activities, and her body had already been strained to its limits. The dark haired girl was completely exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally. Over the span of a few hours (days…weeks?) she had little rest, no food, had been randomly attacked by malicious spirits, and had her twin sister stolen away from her three times. Just now, they had been so close to escaping…they had only needed to reach the top of the steps and enter the Kireha Shrine…_

_ They had been pursued by a group of villagers waving torches and sickles, too numerous for Mio to fight off. Instead, she had turned and ran. She had momentarily forsaken Mayu's safety for her own, falsely trusting her twin to be able to keep up. She had forgotten that Mayu could not match her pace, not with her permanent limp slowing her down and causing her pain. It wasn't until the girl screamed that Mio had even noticed her sister had vanished from her side and was being taken away from her again. She immediately turned to help, but the spirits were too numerous for her to simply break through._

_ "I can still save her," she told herself, stumbling slightly over her own feet when she crossed over the brook. Mio knew there was only one place they would take Mayu: The Kurosawa house. She just had to reach the basement before they completed the ceremony, then she could bring her sister back and they could finally go home._

_ "I will save her!" More spirits blocked her path, though Mio wasn't entirely upset about the opportunity to pause and rest. Lifting the antique camera in her hands, she took aim and pressed the shutter. A bright flash exploded from the device and one of the spirits dropped to his knees, slowly fading out of existence._

_ Mio tiredly maneuvered around the spirits, her only goal being to clear a path for herself and continue onward. Her exhaustion and desperation had made her careless. An ephemeral hand had slipped past her weak defenses to strike Mio, and she found the camera tumbling from her grasp. The girl had tried desperately to reclaim her only means of defense, finding herself knocked to the ground. When she attempted to crawl away, a heavy foot planted itself into her back and slowly crushed the air out of her lungs._

_ Tears began streaming down her face while the other specter's began to kick at her sides and stomp on her back, all of them contradicting their actions by moaning about their pain and begging for help. Mio thrashed beneath her assaulter's attacks, trying in vain to free herself and reach the camera, until a pole had been driven into the base of her spine, leaving an unpleasant tingling sensation in her legs. She cried out in pain, suddenly losing the strength and will to move. Instead of continuing to fight like she knew she should, Mio felt herself finally begin to succumb to her exhaustion._

_ "Mayu…I'm sorry," she wept quietly as her vision blurred, wincing with each blow that was delivered to her pain-filled body. "I'm so sorry…onee-san..."_

_ The pole was driven into Mio's back once more with a sickening crunch that left Mio screaming in agony. After that, the kicking and stomping abruptly stopped. All the spirits that had gathered around the sobbing girl stood back, save for one small girl in a bright red kimono. She moved closer, the jingling of bells announcing each step she made, and kneeled by the broken girl's head. Reaching out, the child gently placed her hands on Mio's cheeks in what seemed to be a gesture of comfort. It did not disguise the look of unadulterated hate and sadness marring her young face._

_ "It's all your fault, Yae."_

_ With a quick jerk of her hands and a loud snap, Mio's life ended._

Ichigo leapt to his feet, retracting his hand as though it had been burned. "What the Hell?!" The orange haired Shinigami felt his anxiety grow as a heavy weight pressing down on his chest. Rukia had told him that these demons would kill anyone indiscriminately…but to be told something like that was entirely different from seeing it first hand. His gaze – which had been fixated intently on his shaking hands – shifted back to the ground where the girl had been killed, the image of her prone body replaced by that of his lifeless sisters. Ichigo's hands clenched into white knuckled fists; he had to hurry.

Picking up the camera and shoving it into Rukia's bag – if it did have powers like he saw in his 'vision', then it was definitely something he wanted to have around – Ichigo continued down the path at a more hurried pace. Crossing the small wooden bridge and into the woods, he felt a sense of déjà vu from traveling down the same road he had seen Mio take. It had been strange being able to see what she saw from a first person perspective and being able to hear her thoughts just as clearly as if they were his own.

Ichigo's scowl deepened, wondering how many people had fallen victim to this village and why no one from Soul Society had taken notice. He fully understood their capacity to slip up from time to time, but to miss a village full of _demons_ that had apparently been around for at least twenty years was inexcusable; especially now that his younger sisters were in danger because of their mistake. The orange haired Shinigami slowed to a halt, having a sudden epiphany: They had been twins.

…_there was only one place they would take Mayu: The Kurosawa house. She just had to reach the basement before they completed the ceremony…_

Ichigo's eyes widened, his breath catching in his throat, at the realization that Yuzu and Karin did not come here by accident – some_thing_ wanted them to be here to participate in some kind of ceremony. Whatever it happened to be, it was going to take place at the Kurosawa house and the demon's planned on using his sisters for it. Now that he had a direction, the Shinigami representative spun around with the full intention of sprinting back the way he had come, finding the house, and getting the hell out of the village. Instead, he nearly bumped into the spirit of a girl that looked barely older than Karin that was wearing a ratty kimono and carrying a small bundle on her back.

Stumbling backwards out of sheer surprise, Ichigo found himself clumsily fumbling for the antique camera in Rukia's bag – not even realizing he was holding it upside down when he aimed it at the ghost – and paused. At first, it was out of confusion, because she had made no move to attack and didn't give off the same feeling as the malicious spirits he had encountered earlier. Then it was because when the girl looked up and Ichigo got a clear view of her familiar face, the camera nearly tumbled from his fingers.

"It can't be…"

_Enveloped in darkness...  
This village is doomed...  
Morning will not come...  
Ever again...  
We can never leave..._

_ - Veiled Priest_

A/N: The whole chapter? WTH!? But yep, there it is. And a cliffhanger to boot! Boy them last three pages were tough…it's just kinda hard to write Ichigo – in this situation at least – and I'll probably be fighting with him through the whole story. I'm going to be trying to get him to do stuff and he won't wanna do it because all he wants to think about is his sisters so I gotta tinker with his brain a little…As per usual, let me know if I screw up somewhere.

Many thanks to the people who alert(ed), fav(ed), and review(ed) this story because it really makes my day when I see that people like my story and want me to continue it…even though my 'Arashi' watchers are probably getting ready to storm my house and hurt me…I still working on it guys, I promise.


	5. Chapter Five

Obligatory Author's Note: Chapter five? Chapter five! You know what this means? This story is exactly fifty pages long…at least it is in Microsoft Word with one inch margins all around. For serious, it is EXACTLY fifty pages long and every chapter is EXACTLY ten pages long (if you omit the author notes). I'm anal like that.

**The Village**

**Chapter Five**

"_I wonder how Itsuki and Mutsuki are doing? The letter Itsuki sent me worries me... I asked around, and was told that Itsuki and Mutsuki died of an illness. There was no mention of anything like this in the letters we exchanged. I looked through Itsuki's writings. His family was covering it up, but I found that he was looking for a way out of the village. Since he was a little boy, he was always afraid of some sort of "ceremony". I wonder if he ran away from the village? If not, then he has to be somewhere."_

_- Ryozo Munakata_

"I have to go," the auburn haired girl stated vacantly, turning away and heading outside. The words sounded distant to the girl who spoke them, as if she had said nothing at all and was merely an outside observer to the statement. This should have worried her, warned her that she was not in control of her own movements, but it didn't.

Yuzu thought she had heard Karin calling for her, but at the moment she lacked the capacity to care. Another crimson butterfly had captured her attention, the soft red glow it emitted almost hypnotic and soothing to her previously shattered nerves. As it danced through the air ahead of her, staying just out of arm's reach, Yuzu felt drawn inexorably closer to its comforting presence. Aimlessly wandering after the glowing insect made her feel comfortable and safe, despite the fact that several other spirits – not unlike the woman who had attacked her earlier – faded in and out of existence as she passed. The young Kurosaki was even beginning to look fondly upon the dilapidated place. By the time Yuzu reached the gates leading onto the Kurosawa property, she felt more at home than she would've back at the Kurosaki clinic.

Karin's voice suddenly pierced the cocoon of silence that had wrapped around her twin, much closer that it was earlier. For the briefest of moments, the world looked as it should have. The age torn buildings were unfamiliar, the large doors before her were intimidating, and Yuzu had complete control of her senses. The familiarity of her twin's voice was the only thing that felt right, but fear prevented her from turning and her mind allowed the crimson butterfly to draw her back into its comforting light. If she turned away now, Yuzu would lose the small bit of peace she had managed to find in this terrifying place.

Pushing open the doors, the eleven year old stepped beyond the wall and onto a long flat bridge that crossed a small lake. Karin's voice was immediately silenced as the doors slammed shut and any uncertainties Yuzu harbored faded away as her eyes locked with the ghostly figure standing at the other end of the bridge. Nothing about the woman's fearsome countenance made her appealing, yet Yuzu's legs carried her forward along the rotting bridge, bringing her closer to the dark haired woman and taking her further from her twin sister.

As if sensing her thoughts, the woman spoke, "She left us behind." The words came out as a hushed whisper full of sorrow, regret, and anger. Yuzu felt tears prick at the corners of her eyes as immense sadness washed over her, yet it was an emotion that didn't belong to her. Yae – no, Karin – would never leave her behind…would she? The auburn haired girl suddenly shook her head to clear out the jumbled thoughts and emotions filling her mind, but to no avail. In the end, Yae and Karin became one in the same to her chaotic mind, and the woman standing before Yuzu might as well have been a mirror.

Karin staggered forward and stumbled to her knees, exhaustion and misery sapping the strength from her legs while tears streamed freely from her dark eyes. A hollow feeling ripped its way through the young girl's chest as she swallowed back the sobs that had risen in her aching throat. Crying was useless, of that fact she was well aware, but there were few times in her life where Karin had ever felt this sort of helplessness before. Even in those instances_some_ hope remained, but now…Yuzu was gone and possibly in grave danger, and there wasn't anything she could do about it. Even if she managed to get past the ghosts blocking her path the doors beyond adamantly refused to budge.

"Damn it," Karin choked out, slamming her fist into the ground as a wave of guilt crashed down over her shoulders. She knew she could have prevented this all from happening, knew that if Ichigo or Rukia – or hell, even her father – had been there, none of them would have let Yuzu be taken away by malicious spirits.

"Ichi-nii," she muttered, wiping her face and inadvertently smudging dirt across her cheeks when her tears finally slowed. She found herself wondering if he had returned to the camp yet and what he would do once he found out they were missing. "He would have been able to save Yuzu," Karin sniffled bitterly, suddenly feeling as though the very life was draining out of her. Ichigo would have never let his sister be kidnapped by ghosts, or allow a simple door to prevent him from saving her. He wouldn't be sitting in a crumpled heap on the ground, crying uselessly.

"But he's not here." And she wasn't about to waste time running back to the campsite, especially when that meant leaving Yuzu alone in the village. Karin rubbed her eyes free of the remaining tears, shook her head slightly, and forced herself to climb to her feet. There had to be some way to get past those doors, she decided, and she would find a way even if that meant pummeling the answer out of the two spirits guarding the gate.

"Oneesan?"

Karin paused, head snapping up, and scanned the area for the feminine voice that was not unlike Yuzu's. A glare beset her brown eyes when a crimson butterfly flitted before her face, and she furiously swatted at the glowing creature. It slipped between her fingers as easily as smoke and was completely unaffected by her assault. Infuriated, Karin continued swiping at the insect – even though she knew she could not harm it – unaware that it was slowly drawing her further from the path that would lead her back to Yuzu. When she rounded the corner, the butterfly was nowhere in sight and Karin heard the voice again. This time, the voice was accompanied by a person.

Barely a few yards ahead of Karin stood a young girl barely taller than herself, her back facing the younger girl. Her dark brown, nearly black, tresses were cut just above her shoulders and faded into the fabric of the russet colored shirt she wore – sharply contrasted by the girl's short, white skirt. It took a moment of examination for Karin to realize that this girl was not among the living, but she also didn't seem anything like the other spirits she had encountered thus far. She didn't radiate the Hollow-rivaling animosity that Miyako, the blood-stained woman, or the sickle wielding ghosts had; she also didn't exude a false sense of comfort like the butterflies had. In fact, Karin couldn't sense the girl at all.

"The keys…oneesan…" The girl muttered, grip tightening on the flashlight she held in her hand as she moved further away from Karin. "I have to find them…where are they?" Karin's eyes widened interestedly and hopefully at the mention of keys. Throwing caution to the wind, she darted forward to catch up with the girl.

"What keys?" She asked desperately, matching the older girl's pace when she did not stop. "Do they open those doors back there?" Karin went thoroughly ignored by the spirit and she immediately felt her temper flare. "Answer me!" She demanded, making certain that her most fierce glare was in place. "My sister's in danger and I need to know how I can get through those doors!" When she was ignored again, Karin's patience promptly ran out and she moved to plant her foot in the galling spirit's backside to prove that she meant business.

Karin's foot passed through the girl, setting the Kurosaki girl off balance and causing her to fall flat on her face. The spirit continued on as though nothing had happened, completely unfazed by her attacker. Karin quickly picked herself and her pride up off the ground, befuddled by what had occurred. No matter what kind of ghost she was, she should have been knocked down by that kick. When she really thought about it, Karin realized that she couldn't even sense the spirit which was an impossibility – all ghosts gave off _some_ kind of power, no matter how weak and ordinary they were. But then, what _else_ could this girl possibly be?

"Doesn't matter," she decided, trailing after the translucent teenager. Whatever the spirit was didn't make any difference as long as she led Karin to the keys she needed..._if_ they were the keys she needed…_if_ any keys would work at all. All she could do at this point was hope, since she had no other options.

Following along behind the infuriatingly slow girl, Karin found herself casting several worried glances over her shoulder as the distance between her and her sister gradually grew uncomfortably far. She'd already grumbled at the ghost to go faster and even threatened her, but it seemed that the girl could hear her about as well and Karin could touch her. One of her backward glances towards the path she had come from, however, must have lingered too long because when she looked ahead of her again the spirit had vanished from sight. Not only that, but the path had also reached a dead end.

Karin paused on the road, purely out of astonishment before her previous anger returned and she took her frustration out on a nearby pebble. "Hey! Get back here! Where'd you go!?" She shouted into the empty streets, though she didn't expect an answer. If the spirit couldn't hear her then there wasn't much of a point to shouting.

Which was why she started violently when a nearby voice responded.

"Yae? Is that you?" Karin froze, head slowly turning towards the source of the unfamiliar, slightly masculine voice.

"Um…hello?" An old well sat just to the right of her, an eerie wind rushing up past the stones and producing a low, haunting moan. The girl shivered at the sound, wondering nervously if the voice had come from the bottom of the well. She certainly wouldn't put it past one of these demented spirits to lure her over to the opening and pull her inside. Thankfully, her theory was proven incorrect when the boy spoke again.

"There isn't much time. They've captured Sae." This time, his voice seemed to be coming from behind the warehouse and there was a strong sense of urgency within his tone. "Come here, Yae."

Karin's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "Sae?" She questioned loudly, a quick examination of the chained warehouse doors verifying that the inside was inaccessible to her. The names Yae and Sae echoed with vague familiarity in her mind but, at the moment, she couldn't care less. So far, this boy had been the first spirit – at least, she assumed he was a spirit – in this village to directly respond to her even though he had her mistaken with someone else. Karin was willing to bet he would know how she could get to Yuzu, and that he would actually give her a straight answer.

The only problem now was getting to him so they could speak properly.

"Yes, the villagers found her wandering alone in the forest and brought her back. They intended to perform the ritual without you so you must hurry!"

Karin's gaze landed on the gate next to the warehouse and pushed against it; the door was unresisting. It wasn't until she stepped beyond it that the boy's words registered properly in her mind. "Wait, what ritual?" She demanded, rounding the building and being able to put a face to the boy's voice.

A boy peered out from within the confines of the warehouse via the solitary, barred window on the back of the building. His deep brown eyes practically burrowed into her own, speaking volumes of remorse, grief, anger, and a small sparkle of determination. Most shocking about his appearance, however, was his unnaturally white hair that could only be found on albinos and made his irises stand out all the more sharply.

"Sae should be at the Kurosawa house, now," he informed Karin, ignoring her question.

"That big house with the locked gate?" She questioned urgently. "Listen, I don't know who this Sae person is, but my sister went through that gate and I can't get it open…"

The boy interrupted, continuing to ignore her. "The door will be locked for the ritual."

"I _know_ the stupid door is locked! And _what_ ritual are you talking about?" Karin asked, angrily folding her arms across her chest and glaring at the infuriating boy. At this point, she was beginning to wonder if he would really be any help at all.

"It takes two keys to unlock it," he continued as though she hadn't spoken at all. One of his hands that had been grasping onto the barred window reached down as he fiddled with his white kimono a bit. The hand quickly returned and poked through the bars. "Fortunately, I've managed to secure them both."

Karin's jaw promptly dropped, her hands reaching out numbly to accept the offered keys. "I…uh…well…thank you," she responded gratefully, clutching the slightly rusted metal pieces tightly in her hands. "But, the guards…" She trailed off, looking to the boy expectantly for an answer to her unasked question.

"I'm sorry that I can be of no more help to you, Yae. Just please, save Sae." His eyes grew sad at these words, gaze shifting to the ground. "And please tell her this for me: Itsuki sends his deepest apologies for…everything."

Karin slowly backed away, moving to pocket the keys before deciding that she didn't trust them to keep the precious items safe. "Uh, sure. I'll get right on that, Itsuki." As soon as the words were spoken, Karin bolted back through the gate separating the storehouse front from the back and hurried back down the road she had come from.

Somehow, Karin couldn't stop a triumphant grin from tugging the corner of her lips upwards as she tightened her grip on the keys in her hand to reassure herself that they were still there. Now, she would be able to get into the Kurosawa house – as Itsuki had called it – and find her sister. If she was feeling gracious enough, she might even actually deliver Itsuki's message if she happened to stumble across Sae. Karin suddenly skidded to a hault along with her plans as she found her path blocked once again by a slew of ghosts that had literally sprung up from nowhere and immediately advanced upon the young girl.

Triumphant smirk fading into an irritated scowl, Karin widened her stance as her fierce gaze darted from village spirit to village spirit. She didn't bother counting how many there were, because she didn't care; she would beat every last one of them if that's what it would take to reach her twin sister. As the mob of armed spirits almost literally turned into a wall that completely surrounded her, it seemed as though it would be Karin's only option.

* * *

The moment that the veiled priest had vanished, the once biting cold seemed to ease up considerably; that, however, didn't prevent Rukia from leaving as soon as possible. It wasn't like she had any reason to stay, since the path had not led her to an exit and a quick phone call confirmed that the barrier was still blocking her spirit phone's signal. All she could really do at this point was get back to Ichigo, help him find his sisters, and then try to find a way out of the village.

Soon enough, Rukia found herself standing atop Misono Hill once again and extremely grateful for the flickering torchlight that interrupted the encompassing darkness. She paused a bit to stretch out her gigai's slightly stiff muscles before starting down the path into the village, the return trip decidedly more pleasant due to the healing effects of the water she had found in the graveyard. Absently, Rukia wondered if she should bother looking for Ichigo or immediately set about looking for Yuzu and Karin, and then she pondered if it truly mattered since she wasn't entirely sure where either was.

Halfway down the path, her decision was made for her.

Demon reiatsu suddenly saturated the air in the form of a cold chill that suddenly swept over the area. Immediately assuming a fighting stance and focusing her energy into her hands in case she would need to execute a swift kidou, Rukia's eyes and senses skimmed over the area as she attempted to pinpoint the location of the demons emitting reiatsu. After surveying the area a bit Rukia spotted the source down in the village, her cobalt eyes widening in shock when she spotted a familiar young girl in their midst.

Karin stood defiantly in the center of the ring of demons, obviously prepared to lash out at any that got too close. Unfortunately, spiritually gifted or not, Rukia doubted that the young girl would last long when faced with that number of opponents.

"Byakurai!" She cried out without even pausing to think, a bolt of white lightning surging from her fingertips. The demons turned as her kidou sped towards them through the air and sliced through a handful of them like a hot knife through butter, allowing Ichigo's sister a chance to escape. Without even pausing to investigate the source of the lightning, Karin promptly bolted through the opening and ran further into the village. While Rukia had hoped her initial attack would deter or – at the very least – temporarily distract the demons, the spirits ignored the Shinigami and instead chased after the younger girl.

In her rush to get down the hill to reach the Kurosaki girl, Rukia became the third victim of the bulky black bag that was left lying in the middle of the path when her feet became hopelessly entangled in the strap. The Shinigami scraped the palms of her hands against the rock littered path when she caught herself. Not even bothering to stand first, she fired a few kidou at the straggling demons before beginning to work on untangling her legs from the bag.

Having little patience and no success, Rukia easily tore the leather strap apart with a grunt of frustration. Scrambling hastily to her feet and angrily flinging the bag into the nearest wall, the black haired girl sprinted down the path as fast as her legs would carry her chanting as she ran. This time, she was fully intent on taking the rest of the demons out in one hit.

"Ruler, the mask of blood and flesh! All things of the universe that fly, that which they throw!" The group of demons had moved further down the path after Karin, now completely out of Rukia's line of sight. "In the name of truth and temperance, dig your claws into the wall of sinless dreams!" A quick jump later found the Shinigami atop the roof of the house next to her and she easily leapt into their path, ending their pursuit. Lifting her hand, she took aim.

"Hadou number 33: Soukatsui!" Blue fire coursed from Rukia's palm and completely engulfed the alley-like path in a searing heat. When the flames faded from existence, nothing on the path was left alive – so to speak.

Rukia stepped forward cautiously, hands tightening into fists. "Karin!" She called out, turning in slow circles only to find that the immediate area was vacant. She opened her mouth to shout again when a hand suddenly landed on her shoulder. For a brief fleeting moment, she had foolishly thought it belonged to the younger girl which left her wide open to the devastating punch that was delivered mercilessly to her jaw. The force of the blow knocked the Shinigami clean off her feet and found her sprawled across the ground, staring up at her attacker. Or rather – as it were – her _attackers_.

Barely given even a second to assess her opponents, Rukia rolled out of the way as a metal staff pierced the ground she'd been lying on. A split second slower and it would have been her stomach that the rod impaled. Using the momentum from rolling across the ground, Rukia tumbled to her feet and inwardly groaned when she got a good look at her attackers. The demons that stood before her now were nearly identical to the spirit she had fought back in the graveyard and she doubted that they would be any easier to dispatch, especially now that there was two of them.

"You will not leave this place alive, traitorous wench!" One of the veiled priests spat, lunging at Rukia with his staff raised. The petite Shinigami scowled at the spirit, the last of her patience having worn out during her last demon encounter.

As the spirit's staff came down, Rukia easily caught it in her hands. Ignoring the frigid cold that bit into her fingers when they came in contact with the metal, the Shinigami twisted the rod's point towards the demon's chest and ran him through with it. Sensing the second demon approaching her from behind, she turned and blocked his attack with the staff that was still in her hands. Seconds later, the demon's head was blown clean off by a ball of red fire. One problem taken care of, Rukia knocked the still impaled demon to the ground, driving the point of the staff as far into the dusty road as she could and effectively pinning the spirit.

Taking a brief moment to catch her breath and rub her still aching jaw, Rukia glared down at the writhing demon that was tugging uselessly on the staff the held him in place. "You will not escape, you foolish child!" He cried out, his voice laced with even more venom than before. "Do not think you can hope to prevent the ritual from occurring!"

Rukia's interest was effectively piqued. "What ritual?" She demanded.

"You have not saved anyone!" He continued ranting and writhing, to no avail. "Because of you, the twins are dead and soon…this village will be…" Rukia's eyes widened. Did he mean Yuzu and Karin? Karin couldn't have been dead because she'd had been just fine not even a minute ago, but Yuzu…

Suddenly, the demon stopped writhing and his grip tightened around the metal staff. "I will not…allow you to escape. I will…throw you into…the abyss!" A bright white light collected around the head of the metal rod, taking the shape of a floating skull that launched itself at the dark haired girl. Startled into action, Rukia reflexively fired a kidou at the demon and soon he too was rendered headless. Moments later, he faded into nothing.

Unfortunately, his strange attack did not.

Something cold slammed into Rukia's side, knocking the wind clean out of her lungs as a painful chill twisted its way through her chest and tied knots in her lungs. The Shinigami dropped to her knees, gasping desperately for breath, and succumbing to darkness.

* * *

Stumbling backwards out of sheer surprise, Ichigo found himself clumsily fumbling for the antique camera in Rukia's bag – not even realizing he was holding it upside down when he aimed it at the ghost – and paused. At first, it was out of confusion, because she had made no move to attack and didn't give off the same feeling as the malicious spirits he had encountered earlier. Then it was because when the girl looked up and Ichigo got a clear view of her familiar face, the camera nearly tumbled from his fingers.

"It can't be…"

But it couldn't have been anyone else. She might have looked a little younger and was slightly harder to identify since she was wearing a faded and tattered kimono stained with fresh blood, but the moment she had looked up there was little doubt in Ichigo's mind about the girl's identity. She had the same dark hair cut in an almost identical manner, the same dark, haunting eyes, and she was even about the same height. It had to be her, even if was completely impossible, since the girl she so resembled was certainly not a demon the last time he saw her.

Then again, this girl didn't seem to be a demon either.

Ichigo took a cautious step towards the spirit, who was breathing heavily beneath the slight burden on her back and the blood steadily seeping from her body. He opened his mouth and then, unsure of what to say, slowly let it close again before taking another step forward, disbelief forcing his eyes to scan her face over and over again even though his mind drew the same conclusion every time. When he opened his mouth in an attempt to speak again, he was cut off by the disturbingly familiar girl.

"Almost…there," she muttered between gasps of breath, her gaze shifting to the winding steps that lead up to the shrine. "I won't…let them…" she trailed off, deciding not to waste any more breath.

That had cinched it. Even her _voice_ was nearly identical. "Are you…are you Rukia?" Ichigo found himself muttering aloud, though he remained unacknowledged by the girl who bore an uncanny resemblance to his companion. "What the hell is going on?" He questioned forcefully. If the girl ever intended to respond, the substitute Shinigami would never have received a response anyway.

'Rukia's' head suddenly shot up and a panicked gasp escaped her lips as the area was suddenly lit up by torchlight. Without pausing a second further, she ran _straight through_ Ichigo and by the time he had turned around she had completely vanished from sight. The orange haired Shinigami was allowed no more time to wonder about the Rukia look-a-like because the torchlight she had been startled by was steadily growing brighter as its source drew closer. Unfortunately for him, these spirits weren't completely oblivious to the Shinigami's presence like the girl had been.

A loud groan of annoyance escaped from Ichigo's mouth, his grip tightening on the camera he held. "Not you bastards again," he grumbled in annoyance, as a trio of spirits nearly identical to the ones Rukia had dispatched earlier came into view and readily decided on him as their new target. "Guess I might as well see if this thing actually works." Lifting the antique camera and centering the viewfinder on the nearest demon's head, Ichigo pressed the shutter button and a flash of light exploded forth from the device. The spirit stumbled, moaning out in pain, before dropping to his knees and fading out of existence.

"Woah," Ichigo muttered, glancing over the camera appreciatively before lifting it again and taking aim. Their fallen comrade had done nothing to dissuade the two remaining spirits from continuing to advance on the teenager, but it didn't matter in the end. In a matter of moments, they too were dispatched by the antique camera.

Without a moment's hesitation, Ichigo hurried down the path he had come from to continue his objective: Find Karin and Yuzu before the demons did. With every step he took – which felt agonizingly slow to him – his panic and worry continued to rise. His sisters being trapped in a village of murderous demons was one thing, but them being trapped in a village of murderous demons that had intentionally brought them here for some unknown demonic ceremony was another thing entirely.

As he ran, Ichigo delved further into his thoughts, trying to recall as much as he could from the strange vision he had experienced earlier. Since during that short time in which he literally felt like he had stepped inside that girl's head, the teenager had hoped he could remember a few more thoughts that had passed through her mind and gain more clues as to where he needed to go. The endeavor ended up proving futile in the end, and his thoughts were interrupted as his path was abruptly cut off once again. He had only just crossed over the small stream and was heading back into the main area of the village when a man abruptly materialized approximately two inches in front of his face.

Startled, Ichigo fell gracelessly on his ass and promptly backpedaled a good distance away from the spirit. Once he was safely out of range, the teen quickly snatched up the camera he had dropped at his side before scrambling to his feet. "Damn it, how many of these things are there?" He growled, lifting the camera once again.

Click.

Ichigo frowned, staring down at the suddenly unresponsive device in his hands. Unlike before there had been no flash of light, no collapsing ghost, no whir of movement as the film was being loaded…

The orange haired Shinigami suddenly cursed. "This dumbass thing needs _film_?!" After angrily stuffing the thing back into the bag Rukia had given him, Ichigo noticed for the first time that – other than appearing in the first place – the spirit had made no movement whatsoever. He simply stood there in his ragged clothes, opened shirt exposing a set of ribs that threatened to pop right out of the man's skin, and blank eyes gazing into nothingness.

Climbing to his feet and cautiously approaching the unresponsive spirit, Ichigo remained tense, half expecting the man to lunge forward and rip out the Shinigami's entrails. After a few seconds of having an unofficial staring contest with the motionless spirit, he decided that this particular ghost was planning on ignoring him. That didn't prevent the teen from making the widest berth he possibly could around the spirit and keeping his amber gaze focused solely on the immobile man.

Even so, Ichigo nearly leapt out of his skin when the man abruptly turned and took a swipe at the teenager's face, who stumbled backwards out of sheer surprise. The man's fingernails just grazed the tips of Ichigo's eyelashes as though he had intended to gouge out the boy's eyes with his initial strike. Reflexively lifting his foot, he planted a solid kick in the man's stomach that served only to force him backwards a few steps. Obviously, he was a bit more resilient than the other spirits he had so easily knocked down before. Using the small opening he created for himself, Ichigo decided to follow Rukia's earlier advice of avoiding confrontation and ran past the demon just as it moved to take another swing at him.

But only because he had to get to his sisters.

Ichigo was not pursued further by the man and part of him was not surprised that the demon hadn't bothered taking more than a few step after him. He was partially unsurprised because of its lazy demeanor and partially because he was too busy being surprised – or rather shocked – at the sight that awaited him when he rounded the corner.

Rukia, the real one, was lying in an unconscious heap on the ground.

"You damn idiot," he ground out, rushing to his fallen comrade. Upon dropping down next to her, relief flooded Ichigo's senses when he noticed the steady rise and fall of her chest, indicating that she was still breathing. "I friggin' told you to take care of yourself. Why the hell don't you ever listen to me?" He berated the small Shinigami girl. Quite suddenly, he found a fist implanted in his jaw.

"Quit talking like I'm dead or something," Rukia grumbled tiredly, pushing herself into a sitting position while Ichigo leveled an irritated glare at her and rubbed his sore chin. "What was that?" She muttered to herself, hand going to her forehead to soothe away the headache pounding its way into her skull. Quite suddenly, the Shinigami's head snapped up in realization and she quickly scrambled to her slightly wobbly feet.

"Did you contact Soul Society?" Ichigo asked, knowing it was pointless to question whether or not she was okay. "Are they sending someone?"

"I saw Karin," she cut him off, regarding him with a serious stare.

Ichigo's eyes narrowed, previous inquiry forgotten. "Where? What about Yuzu?"

Rukia shook her head slightly, "I didn't see Yuzu. Karin ran down this way, but I lost track of her." She turned her cobalt gaze down the narrow alley that separated two of the larger houses in the village. "She may have gone into one of the houses, I think this path leads to a dead end."

"Shit," Ichigo growled, slamming his fist into the wall. "They already have her."

Alarmed, Rukia turned her inquisitive gaze on him. "What do you mean?"

"There's a house we have to go to," he told her firmly. "They'll be there, I'm sure of it. It was called…" Ichigo paused, trying desperately to remember the family name associated with the house. He never cursed his inability to remember names as much as he did right then. "Damn it!" His fist met the dusty, old wood of the building next to him once again, his breath turning ragged as his frustration grew.

"Ichigo," Rukia's voice cut into him as sharply as her cobalt eyes glared sternly into his. "We know she has to be down this way, and the houses should be marked. You'll recognize the name when you see it." She didn't bother to question how he knew where his sister's would be, or what led him to believe that someone or something had kidnapped them. Whenever Ichigo was certain of something, she often knew better than to second guess him.

After taking a moment to let her words sink in, Ichigo silently started down the path that Rukia had indicated earlier with the older Shinigami in tow. As they searched, she couldn't help but gnaw guiltily at her lip for not reaching Karin sooner. If only she hadn't wasted so much time in the graveyard or trying to find a way out of the barrier then Karin would be with them now, safe. Suddenly feeling the need to apologize, Rukia opened her mouth to speak.

"Ichigo, I…"

"She wasn't hurt, right?" He interrupted quietly.

Rukia paused, slightly taken aback by the question. "No," she replied after a few seconds. "She was fighting off a group of them when I found her, but she wasn't injured."

"Yeah, she would do something like that," he commented numbly. Ichigo suddenly stopped in his tracks. "There's a door over here." Both Shinigami quickened their pace and found that it was, indeed, marked.

"Kiryu," Rukia read the name aloud, receiving a look of incredulity from Ichigo.

"You can read this old ass kanji?" He asked.

"Of course," she replied haughtily. "Was that the name? Kiryu?"

Ichigo paused in thought, turning the name over in his head. It sounded about right to him, but he wasn't certain enough to enter without checking around more. "I don't think so," he said aloud before continuing down the path. "You never told me whether or not Soul Society was sending anyway."

Rukia's shoulders slumped as she heaved a tired sigh. "I couldn't get outside of the barrier." The Shinigami Representative looked at her sharply, eyes widened in alarm. "There is powerful demonic magic at work here, and for whatever reason they don't want us to leave." Rukia suddenly shook her head, correcting herself. "They don't want _anyone_ to leave, and they don't want anyone on the outside to be able to detect this place. I don't know exactly how long that barrier has been in place, but it will be nearly impossible for me to dismantle it."

"You're telling me that even after we get Yuzu and Karin we can't leave?" He questioned angrily. Rukia remained silent and Ichigo snorted. "Fine, we'll just have to beat the crap outta every one of these demon bastards until they let us leave." The dark haired Shinigami didn't bother to tell her companion that the solution would undoubtedly be more difficult than that because it was something best left to worry about later.

The Shinigami duo rounded the corner, coming across a narrow bridge that crossed the alleyway and connected the second story of the two opposing houses. Just as they were crossing beneath it, Ichigo spotted something shiny on the ground, glinting in the faint moonlight and picked up his pace. He was stopped dead in his tracks by an ear piercing shriek as the body of a woman dropped like a stone merely a foot in front of him, landing in a heap with a sickening crunch. Both he and Rukia started violently and stared in silent horror at the woman lying motionless on the ground with her neck bent at an unnatural angle and her glazed eyes staring up at them.

"Help…" she whispered in a cracked voice before fading completely from existence. Ichigo frowned down at the spot where she once lay, feeling his stomach twist uncomfortably.

"Just what the hell happened here?" Being in a literal ghost town where the only remaining residents were bound determined to kill any visitors or themselves (despite already being dead) didn't bode well for the village's history.

"I can't even begin to imagine," Rukia responded quietly. "I've never even heard of anything like this occurring. This many demons in one place…it's unheard of."

Ichigo looked up from the ground, the glittering object on the ground capturing his attention once again. Ever since the camera incident, he had become wary of objects left lying on the ground. That is, until he got closer and realized what it was and noticed that something was scraped into the ground next to it.

"This is Karin's," he stated, kneeling down to scoop up the watch in his hands. In the ground next to it, a large arrow had been drawn pointing to a large, double door gate and the sign beside it read: Kurosawa.

_I want to see Itsuki…  
See him, and say I'm sorry…  
It's all our fault…  
If we hadn't run away…  
Itsuki and the others…  
It didn't have to be this way..._

_- Sae Kurosawa_

A/N: Phew…no one told me NaNoWriMo was going to be hard! …Actually, everybody told me that, but still. At any rate, I had a lot of fun participating and even though I didn't finish I really feel like I've accomplished something and I'm looking forward to going at it again next year. I also encourage anyone who enjoys writing to participate as well.


	6. Chapter Six

Obligatory Author's Note: So, who else is totally excited about the third Bleach movie coming out? I'm only mentioning this of course so you all forget about murdering me for taking so long to finish this chapter.

...Did it work?

**The Village**

**Chapter Six**

"_The Kurosawa name is scattered throughout the literature, but no concrete information is written. I have no doubt that they held absolute power though. Where in the world did the villagers go? And how do you get out of this village? The answers to these questions lie within the Kurosawa house. I'm not sure how I know, but I have a strong feeling about this."_

_- Masumi Makimura_

Somehow, the fact that Rukia – the _real_ one, not the creepy thing that replaced Rukia whenever she left to fight Hollows – was also within the village which ultimately meant that Ichigo was present made Karin feel like a great weight had been lifted from her chest. Still, she could not be bothered to wait for them. Yuzu needed her and every precious second that ticked by was time wasted not saving her sister. The dark haired girl had muttered a brief apology to Ichigo, wherever he was, when she had purposely dropped her watch and scuffed the rough shape of an arrow into the ground with her shoe before continuing on. She might not be able to wait, but she could at least let the two Shinigami know where she was.

After inserting the two keys that the white haired boy Itsuki had given to her, Karin was able to effortlessly open the twin doors that wouldn't budge even a centimeter beforehand. Eerily enough, once she passed through, they slammed shut behind her. Not bothering to check and see if they had locked behind her since she had no intention of leaving yet anyway, Karin surveyed the new area she found herself in with slight surprise. She hadn't paid much attention earlier when Yuzu had passed through the gate, and was expecting the doors to lead to a mansion or at least a courtyard. Instead, they revealed a lake with a long, questionable looking wooden bridge that led to a high wall and another set of doors.

"If those are locked, I'm going to kill something," she grumbled to herself, walking along the bridge. During her entire trip, Karin kept her gaze fixated on her feet or, more precisely, where her feet were going. A thick, greenish mist, had settled over the entire lake and low visibility plus rotting bridge did not equate to anything good in Karin's mind.

A low whispering moan wafted across the lake as a harsh wind began whipping across the bridge and tugged fiercely at Karin's scrawny body. The air around her now carried the distinctive sent of an approaching storm and a glance skyward showed that the full moon was already being obscured by thick clouds. If she didn't hurry, she'd be stuck in the middle of a rickety bridge in the pitch darkness with torrents of rain threatening to wash her away. She quickened her pace into a fast walk, and then broke out into a jog when she felt the first tiny droplets of rain water splash against her skin while thunder rumbled in the distance.

Karin's eyes remained fixated on the path before her, her nimble feet dodging around broken boards and holes with ease, while she silently cursed the length of the bridge. It hadn't looked all that long when she first glimpsed it, which may very well have been a trick of the light or of perception. Either way, the howling wind, the growing rate of the rain's decent, and the sudden chill in the air pushed her to go faster even when her feet began catching on the warped wood every so often. After what seemed like an eternity, she finally reached the end of the bridge and shoved against the doors at the other end – which did not budge. A moment later, the Kurosaki girl sighed in relief upon realizing that the doors were not locked, but simply meant to open _outwards_.

Tugging them open with great difficulty – as the hinges were fairly rusted and the handles were slick with rainwater – Karin quickly slipped between the doors the moment the opening was wide enough. She found herself standing inside a walled in courtyard decorated with lit stone lamps and a path made of flat stones leading up to a sizeable mansion. The ground beneath her, which was quickly turning into mud, looked like it might have once been part of a beautiful garden, but now was nothing more than wilted plants and sparse patches of grass. Wasting no more time, she hurried down the stone path and burst through the front doors of the mansion, not even bothering to shut them behind her.

Karin was forcefully stopped in her tracks by the sheer frigidness of the air, watching in confusion as her breath streamed from her lips in a long white puff. Impossibly, it was a great deal colder inside than it was outside. Even the cool, storm breeze that streamed in steadily from the still open doors felt like warm sunshine compared to the frigid air inside the manor. Trembling and rubbing her bare arms to chase away the goose bumps that had already started to form, the dark haired girl slowly moved further into the dilapidated house, the floorboards creaking and groaning beneath her footsteps.

Truly, it was a wonder that the floor didn't collapse completely underneath her feet. Parts of the ceiling had long ago caved in on either side of the foyer, their age betrayed by the thick layer of dust that had settled over everything and the warped nature of the wooden beams. Ahead of Karin lay a long corridor leading from the foyer to a small circular window that did little to alleviate the low-light situation, and two doors on either side of the hallway. A tattered cloth was draped from a wooden beam that hung across the mouth of the corridor, faded and worn from old age, partially obscuring her view of what else lay at the end of the hall.

Karin sneezed suddenly, a mixture of the cold, thick dust, and musky scent that hung heavily in the air. Shortly afterwards, another floorboard creaked only this sound was not her doing.

At the end of the hall, Karin could see the rough silhouette of a young girl standing against the faint flashes of lightning streaming through the window behind her. It was hard to tell in the darkness, but the dark haired Kurosaki could swear that the flickering light revealed the tell-tale auburn of her twin's hair. Karin reached out for her sister though hadn't yet moved, almost afraid that any advancement on her part would cause Yuzu to bolt once again. Abruptly reminded of her much earlier vision in which she had strangled the girl, she snatched her hand back in fear.

"Sister? Why did you leave me?" Yuzu's familiar voice whispered in an eerie, agony ridden voice.

"Yuzu?" Karin spoke quietly, heart thudding painfully in her chest. The words themselves didn't fully register in the girl's mind, only the voice that spoke them. Suddenly hopeful, the dark haired girl started forward towards the figure and reached out to fully brush aside the torn cloth that was partially obscuring her vision.

Only to be violently startled when the front door slammed shut behind her and the resounding rumble of thunder rattled the very foundation of the house. Karin gasped and reflexively spun around, staring fearfully at the now closed door, perpetrator no where to be found. She gulped in fear at the loss of her only means of escape – with her sister, of course - as there was no doubt in the young girl's mind that the front door had been sealed. Just as she had begun to regain her bearings, Karin felt her heart plummet to her feet when the doors suddenly shook violently as though someone had slammed against them.

From Karin's side.

A bloodied handprint abruptly formed on the dingy wood of the door, causing the young girl to start and take a shaky step backwards. Another sudden shake made her step away even further, and another handprint formed. Soft cries and whimpers drifted past Karin's ears, growing increasingly louder with each handprint that had materialized along with the escalating frequency and intensity of the pounding on the door. Panic creeping across her senses, Karin slapped her hands over her ears in an attempt to drown out the fearful screams and continued backing away from the entrance.

Red handprints now began decorating the walls next to the door, the pounding of invisible appendages and mournful cries easily outmatching the fierce thunder rumbling outside. Karin squeezed her eyes shut, digging her fingers painfully into her scalp as if trying to tear the noises away from her, and didn't even notice as the tiniest of tears managed to slip away from her. Images, horrible and gruesome, flashed inside of her mind as she continued stumbling backwards.

_A man clawing frantically at a door, panicked, trying to escape; not even seeming to realize his legs had been torn off._

_A woman huddled into a corner, shaking violently as she stared in silent horror at her own blood leaking into her hands from a gaping stomach wound._

_The remains of what once used to be children lying in mutilated heaps on the ground._

_People injured, bleeding, frantic, climbing over each other, trying desperately to escape whatever it was that pursued them only to die screaming._

Karin's breath hitched painfully in her throat and she violently shook her head to clear the images away. Her knees wobbled unsteadily beneath her as bile began to rise in her throat for the second time that night. Something suddenly brushed softly against the Kurosaki girl's back and startled her back to her senses. Leaping a good distance away and spinning around, the panting adolescent clutched her heart in relief to find that she had only backed into the cloth that had been draped over the beam that ran perpendicular to the corridor. It wasn't until she had caught her breath that she had fully realized the voices had stopped, as had the pounding on the door. Swallowing hard and taking a deep, shuddering breath, Karin moved forward on slightly shaky legs.

She didn't dare turn her gaze back towards the entrance in fear of what she might find. All that mattered then was that Yuzu had already vanished from the corridor, the only clue to her whereabouts being the opened door at the end of the hallway. Swallowing several times to fully rid her mouth of the foul taste and mentally steeling herself, Karin strode as confidently as her shattered nerves would allow to the end of the corridor.

"I've never been afraid of any stupid ghost before," she grumbled to herself, though she said so quietly in fear that something might hear her, "and I'm not going to start being afraid now." Those words became her silent mantra as she moved further into the house, trying her best not to flinch at the abrupt flashes of lightning filtering in through the windows or the creaking of particularly loud floorboards as she walked across them.

Feeling slightly more confident with each step she took, Karin did not hesitate to push the slightly ajar door fully open to enter the room beyond it. Inside she found another corridor wider and longer than the one she had come from and a great deal warmer. Though the roof completely covered this area of the house, the end of the hallway led to a long, open walkway that disappeared behind the right wall and overlooked the lake. The only other direction that Karin had to choose from was another corridor just to her left a few feet ahead.

Taking a step forward, Karin froze in place when a lacerated man stumbled forward from the left and dropped to the ground with a painful thud. He lay there for a few moments, softly sobbing incoherent words while his bloodied fingers twitched and pulled at the floor as though trying to drag himself forward. His glazed eyes shifted upwards to meet Karin's bewildered gaze and her breath suddenly caught in her lungs. She mentally began chanting her mantra again even as he lifted his hand slowly to reach for her and her knees started to wobble.

Karin immediately jolted when he was suddenly tugged backwards nearly a foot, his arm falling back to his side while his forehead smacked sharply into the ground. "No," he whimpered, digging his fingernails into the floors boards as he was slowly dragged back down the corridor he had come from, leaving a bloody trail in his wake. He let out a cry of pain as his nails were ripped away, but continued scrambling to find purchase on the wooden floors. "No…no…no!" He cried out, before one final tug took him completely from Karin's line of sight and the sound of ripping flesh cut off the man's screams.

A tear dropped from Karin's chin, and she numbly wondered when and why she had begun to cry. Another vision slammed into her with full force; a vision of another time before the mansion had begun to fall into disrepair.

_"The Kusabi is coming! The ritual has failed!"_

_Servants, priests, and household members alike scrambled down the hallways shrieking in terror as a black mist engulfed the house. Many whom it touched became inexplicably hysterical, flinging themselves into the lake only to drown, dropping to the ground and tearing wildly at their eyes, or even gouging their flesh with their own fingernails. Those who weren't affected by the mist were lacerated mercilessly by some unseen force until they stopped moving. Above all the screams and sobs of agony that echoed through the hall rose the insane laughter of a woman._

Karin stumbled backwards out of the vision, breathing heavily and clutching her chest painfully. She caught her breath quickly, tears of terror and frustration gathering at the corners of her eyes which she stubbornly blinked away. Taking in a lungful of air and gripping her head between her hands the young girl screamed out her anger and pain, the feeling of it all seeping out of her almost tangible. Once she had completely emptied her lungs the entire manor fell strangely silent, save for the sound of her heavy breathing and the rain pattering against the roof and the lake outside.

No longer interested in moving cautiously through the house, Karin walked briskly past the doorway through which the spirit had been dragged – pointedly keeping her gaze from straying to it – and out to the railing that separated her from the misty lake. She turned right to follow the lake's edge while keeping a respectable distance from it as images of ghosts reaching up from the depths of the water to drag her under flooded the young girl's mind.

Another door awaited Karin, the rest of the corridor cut off by fallen beams and a collapsed floor. Mentally steeling herself for the possibility of another 'vivid' vision or malevolent spirit, she gripped the door handle and promptly froze when a bone chilling laugh emanated from the room beyond. There was no mistaking it for anything else – it was the exact same maniacal laugh from her vision and the same voice as the female ghost that had taunted her shortly after Yuzu had run off. Once the laughter had faded, Karin tightened her hold on the handle, took a deep breath, and flung the door wide open - fully expecting to be assaulted by malicious ghosts or bear witness to more brutal deaths.

The room beyond was completely empty. No ghosts, no woman in a blood-stained kimono, and (most importantly) no Yuzu.

* * *

Ichigo shifted his gaze, the glittering object on the ground capturing his attention once again. "This is Karin's," he stated, kneeling down to scoop up the watch in his hands. In the ground next to it, a large arrow had been drawn pointing to a large, double door gate and the sign beside it read: Kurosawa.

"That's the house," he stated with irrefutable certainty, approaching the gates and tugging on them. He scowled when they refused to budge and pulled harder but to no avail. "Damn it," he growled. Ichigo kicked the door in frustration before standing back a few feet to better examine the obstruction. "Can you break through it?"

Rukia scrutinized the door, pressing the palm of her hand flat against it. "It's barricaded with a strong demonic energy. I could dismantle it, but it could take hours."

Unfortunately, they didn't have a few hours to spare and Ichigo set about looking for a different solution. Backing up a few steps, he could tell that there was no roof beyond the door, which meant it probably led to a courtyard and they would be able to climb over. Turning back to his companion, Ichigo was about to offer to boost her up when he abruptly took note of the fact that she was wearing a dress. The suggestion immediately died in his throat as he thought of a slightly better plan. "Stand over here and give me a boost," he instructed instead, motioning for her to stand with her back to the door.

"A boost," Rukia repeated, waiting for him to elaborate.

"Put your hands like this," Ichigo held his hands in front of him at waist level, interlocking his fingers together. In hesitant confusion, Rukia mimicked his actions. "I'm going to put my foot in your hands and push off the ground with my other foot. When I do, you push like this." He demonstrated a lifting motion with his hands.

"I see," she stated in a bland tone often used when she believed he was about to do something stupid, but decided to entertain him anyways. Locking her fingers together more firmly and widening her stance, Rukia nodded to indicate that she was ready and Ichigo carefully stepped into her hands. Even though he knew her gigai - as well as Rukia herself - was much stronger than it looked, he kept as much of his weight as possible out of her hands and on his other leg.

"Alright, go."

Rukia lifted her hands, just as Ichigo had demonstrated, only with a little more force than he expected. Quite abruptly, the substitute Shinigami found himself airborne and flailing in panic for several seconds until he landed with a thud on top of the wall with the wind knocked solidly out of him. "Wha…what…" He gasped until his muscles finally relaxed enough for him to breathe properly and climb to his feet. "What the HELL was that!?" He shouted, pointing an accusing finger at the petite Shinigami who was standing on the ground below.

"Don't get angry with me, you're the one who wanted a 'boost'!" She snapped.

"I didn't want you to fling me fifty feet in the air!" It hadn't been _quite_ that high, but being abruptly shot into the air had the tendency to make one exaggerate.

"It's your own fault for not being more specific," Rukia retorted flippantly. With a slight bending of her knees, her gigai easily cleared the wall and landed her safely on the other side. "If you had, I could have simply carried you over instead of 'boosting' you."

The emasculating image of being given a piggy back ride by a scrawny girl nearly a foot shorter than him made Ichigo's eye twitch in irritation. Choosing not to continue their pointless discussion, he scooted himself off of the edge of the roof to lower himself to the ground. His body (which, in this situation, unfortunately) was made of plain old flesh and bone that couldn't take the kind of punishment Rukia's faux body could. That task done with, he finally took stock of their current surrounding, finding a rickety bridge stretching out over a lake before them to a mansion shrouded in dense fog.

More concerning was the fact that a storm had quite abruptly begun raging overhead, the skies opening and dumping bucket loads of water onto the two Shinigami. It wasn't as if the storm had just started, it was as though had been there all along and confined only to this specific area.

"Great," Ichigo muttered, lifting his hand to shield his eyes from the fat drops of rain splashing against his face. Regardless of the storm, the duo began moving slowly across the bridge, their path lit by the faint blue glow of Rukia's kidou.

Ichigo wasn't sure what had prompted it, but he found himself thinking about the ghost girl he had come across earlier. "Rukia, have you ever…" he paused before rewording his question, "does this place seem…familiar to you at all?" She looked slightly perplexed by his inquiry, but pondered it nonetheless.

"Well…it does seem to resemble parts of the Rukongai in Soul Society," she responded after a few moments of thought. "Why?"

"Uh…" Ichigo wasn't quite sure how to respond. He didn't think it would go over too well if he casually mentioned that'd he seen another Rukia wandering around in a ratty kimono with demon village people trying to kill her. He tossed out another question of his own instead. "Do souls usually remember their lives when they die?"

"Most of the time, yes. The longer they stay in Soul Society, though, the more they forget. Majority of the Shinigami can't remember anything about their lives, though." Rukia examined Ichigo's face with a critical eye. "Why are you asking this all of a sudden?"

"Just curious," he retorted lamely, tugging at the collar of his shirt which was uncomfortably plastered to his chest with rain water. "So…you don't remember anything from when you were alive?"

Rukia huffed in sudden frustration. "Ichigo, what are you…" In her distracted state, she had failed to keep note of where her feet were going and the sudden snap of wet, rotten wood was the prelude to Rukia falling down on one knee, while her other leg disappeared through the hole she had created. She flinched from the frigid temperature of the lake as it completely engulfed her leg from the knee down, and also from the wood splinters that were know digging painfully into flesh. During her fall, she had inadvertently tossed the blue orb of kidou into the sky, where it quickly fizzled out and left the two Shinigami in complete darkness.

"Rukia?" Ichigo called out, not bothering to mask his panic. Suddenly struck with something close to blindness made it seem to him as though she had simply sunk into the ground and vanished. Taking a slow step forward and accidentally kicking her leg in the process flooded him with relief, even when she took revenge by driving her fist into his foot.

"Watch where you're going you fool!" She snapped.

Ichigo glared down at Rukia, her shape barely visible in the torrential rain and unlit bridge. "What the hell are you doing down there?"

"I'm stuck," Rukia grumbled, pushing experimentally against the floor of the bridge and trying to lift herself up. Already she was beginning to fell sharp pinpricks of cold pain prodding her submerged leg. She suddenly froze when she felt something brush against her ankle, something even colder than the water itself that felt suspiciously like fingers.

'Just a fish,' she told herself, wriggling her leg to try and shake off the numbness.

Ichigo carefully tested the boards in front of Rukia for stability before holding out his hand to take hers. Once he had a firm grip on her wrist, he started tugging her out while she tried not to wince when she felt the jagged edges of the wood tear painfully into her leg. Regardless, she managed to wriggle her free foot beneath her body and use it as leverage; slowly, but surely, they began inching her trapped leg out of the water...

Only for a bony hand to wrap around Rukia's submerged ankle and sharply tug her downwards, eliciting a gasp of both pain and surprise from the Shinigami as her leg was pulled even deeper into the water than before and chunks of wood snapped off and stuck in her bleeding calf. Both she and Ichigo froze, wide eyed gazes meeting, and he quickly understood without words that something not good was about to happen. Already he was moving to redouble his efforts but it was in that single moment when his grip was loosened that Rukia slid effortlessly from his hands and into the murky depths below, leaving only the sound of snapping wood in her wake.

A sharp, agonizing pain lanced through Rukia's thigh and up into her lower back that tore a yelp of pain from her throat, earning her a mouthful of water and cost her a lungful of air. She nearly ended up swallowing another mouthful when the bitter cold of the lake tore through her nerve endings and burrowed straight to her bones. Her hands shot up, clawing fruitlessly at the water above in panic even as she was dragged further down into the depths. The small lake couldn't have been all that deep – maybe ten feet at the most – but in this pitch blackness that completely threw off her sense of direction, she might as well have been in the middle of the ocean with miles of water piled on top of her.

Rukia's lungs were already beginning to burn and her limbs were starting to go numb with cold. The pain in her hip had transitioned from agonizing to completely unbearable and she knew that she wouldn't be able to move it even if she tried. Already she could feel her mind slipping into unawareness and it was entirely too tempting to shut her eyes and let herself be dragged to the bottom.

Like hell that was going to happen.

Doing her best to focus on anything but the immense pain tearing through her body, Rukia's mind sluggishly realized that the only thing keeping her from returning to the surface was the bony hand still wrapped securely around her ankle. Kidou was out of the question at this point – she couldn't even see her own hand in front of her face and didn't feel like inadvertently tearing apart her own foot. Instead she bent her free leg, tucking it as close to her chest as she could, and kicked downwards with as much force as she could muster. She felt her foot connect solidly with her assailant's wrist; it was enough to break the hold the spirit had on her, and Rukia wasted no time in putting all the distance she could between them.

Kicking at the water with her good leg, she lifted her arms above her head and swept them down to her sides, propelling herself through the water towards what she hoped was the surface. At any moment, she fully expected to be seized again and Rukia knew she probably wouldn't have the strength to fight her off again. At this point, she wasn't even sure she would make it at all; her limbs were already tiring, her lungs felt like they had collapsed in on themselves, and it was taking more and more effort to force herself to move. Her vision was starting to blur, she was certain of that when her numb mind vaguely took note of what looked like a crimson stream of blood slowing drifting upwards. Strange, since blood shouldn't have any trouble diluting in water and there shouldn't have been enough light for her to see it anyway.

Idly, she wondered what it would be like to die in this place. Would she end up in Soul Society because she was in a gigai, or would she be reincarnated because she was a Shinigami? Or would she simply become a demon forced to wander in the hellish limbo of the village, killing anyone else unfortunate enough to stumble upon this place? She suddenly thought of Ichigo and felt herself frown, hoping he wasn't stupid enough to actually jump in the lake to try and save her. He needed to find Yuzu and Karin, not bother himself with someone that was already dead.

Rukia pumped her arms one last time before she felt the rest of her strength leave her completely and the last thing she saw was a blurry red ribbon drifting idly in front of her and a large hand plunging into the water, grasping it tightly in their hand...

And suddenly she was being hoisted out of the water and back onto the bridge, eagerly gulping down air like it was water before breaking out into a painful coughing fit. Without meaning to, she found herself leaning heavily against Ichigo for support while she tried to regain her bearings. He held her shoulders to keep her steady, his grip a little tighter than necessary, and allowed himself to sigh heavily in relief.

"It's still..." Rukia gasped between coughing fits and rapidly taking in shallow breaths. "I can't...we have to...you..." Her mind was still infuriatingly muddled, jumbling her thoughts and priorities into unintelligible sentences. It also didn't help that her body was trembling uncontrollably from the cold and she was beginning to hyperventilate.

"Don't talk. Just take it easy and breathe," he told her sternly, a concerned frown tugging at his mouth. "And calm down or you're going to make yourself pass out." Rukia steadied her breathing to the best of her ability, surprised when Ichigo shifted to gently (albeit awkwardly) rest his hand on her back between her shoulder blades to help her calm down. Warmth spread across her skin from beneath his fingertips, and she suddenly realized that even the rain pouring down on her now felt lukewarm.

Swallowing hard, she managed to find her voice and speak coherently. "We have to keep m-moving," her voice still shook along with the rest of her frozen body. "It's st-still down there."

"Yeah." Ichigo briefly scanned the area, speaking as he did. "Sorry, but could you do that kidou thing again?" Rukia responded a few moments later by lighting a blue orb in her hand and better revealing the sorry state she was in from her unplanned swim in the lake. "Don't drop it this time."

Without so much as a warning, much less her permission, Rukia suddenly found herself swept off her feet and tucked under Ichigo's arm much like a sack of potatoes. Before she was given the chance to protest, he was already hurrying across the bridge to the Kurosawa house. Trying to twist out of his grasp or protest being carried would have been pointless, and she doubted she would have been able to run with her leg in it's current condition at any rate. She wasn't, however, about to quietly tolerate the treatment she was receiving.

"Why do y-you insist on c-carting me around in s-such an undignified m-manner?" She attempted to sound indignant, but her chattering teeth ruined the effect.

"Because you can't hit me, or kick me, or try to make me drop you."

Rukia was incredibly tempted to prove just how wrong he was, but she just didn't have the energy to do anything more than keep her arm outstretched to illuminate the path before them. Fortunately, the Shinigami duo made it to the other side without any complications other than the few times Ichigo caught his foot on something and stumbled. Fortunately, the door awaiting them at the end of the bridge opened easily enough and was quickly slammed shut behind them. Somehow, it felt warmer being within the walls of the courtyard that they found themselves in, even though there was no roof over their heads.

Ichigo made straight for the stoop leading to the front door of the mansion and just as Rukia was beginning to wonder if he intended to continue lugging her around while looking for his sisters he stopped and carefully set her down on her feet. He didn't fail to notice that she was favoring her right leg and was making a pretty pitiful attempt at trying to cover it up – he also suspected that her limp had very little to do with the splintered gashes that decorated the area around her knee. Noticing his blatant scrutiny, she leaned down to gingerly pick the wood shards out of her flesh and winced noticeably before she had even touched the wound.

"Sit down."

Rukia tilted her head up, confusion evident in her eyes. "What? Ichigo, we..."

"Sit." A brief staring contest took place, lasting only until Rukia sighed and carefully lowered herself onto the porch steps, stretching her legs out in front of her and crossing her arms over her chest in impatience. Ichigo stood before her, seeming to appraise her current condition while the Shinigami he was inspecting prepared herself for an argument. She would be damned if she let him leave her sitting outside while he, alone and defenseless, tried to find his sisters.

It was a peculiar thought to ever think of _Ichigo_ as defenseless.

"Your hip's dislocated," he finally spoke, nodding to himself as though he had already known without having to look. The fact that her right leg was now significantly shorter than her left was irrefutable proof.

"Is that bad?" Ichigo cast her a questioning look, one that clearly asked 'are you seriously asking me something this stupid?' "Do I _look_ like a Fourth Division medic to you?" She snapped defensively.

"What part of _dislocated hip _sounds like a good thing?" Rukia glared in response, and rather than get too far into a pointless argument with her, he addressed the more pressing matter. "Your hip popped out of its socket and it needs to be fixed. Otherwise you won't be able to walk anywhere and if you try to heal it as is well...then your gigai's probably going to end up with a permanent limp."

Rukia quickly decided to set about fixing the problem by pushing on her hip with her hands, hissing in pain as she did so. Ichigo was quick to interfere before she ended up hurting herself. "Not like that, stupid. You're going to end up breaking something and making it worse."

"Fine, you do it."

Ichigo hesitated, suddenly nervous for more than one reason. "Uh...it's probably gonna hurt like hell," he warned, moving to sit next to her. At least he figured it would, since his dad always doped up his patients before doing a relocation.

"I didn't expect it wouldn't." Rukia leaned back against the door frame and shut her eyes, doing her best to relax. A few seconds ticked by and she felt Ichigo shift on the porch next to her, though he hadn't made any move indicating that he was about to do anything. She briefly cracked one cobalt eye open to see him shifting almost nervously, as though he wasn't quite sure what to do first. "You are wasting time," she reminded him, only slightly amused when he jumped slightly at her voice. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"Shut up," he snapped a little too quickly. If it weren't storming and the moon was out, she probably would have been able to see that his face was red. Ichigo did know what he was doing; he had seen his father relocate plenty of joints before and knew the procedure for doing it. He'd even helped relocate Karin's hip once after she took a nasty fall during a soccer game. It wouldn't be any different from that except that this was _Rukia,_ not his sister, and she was wearing a _dress_ and he was going to be touching her _leg_ and she was going to _kill_ him for this and he did _not_ want to die.

Sighing heavily and bracing himself to face the petite Shinigami's wrath, Ichigo pushed the skirt of her dress up slightly to uncover her injured knee. Mindful of the cuts, he carefully curled his fingers under the joint and slowly lifted her leg a few inches. Rukia winced slightly and crossed her arms over her chest as if bracing herself before she forced herself to relax again. Face still burning, an even brighter red now, the orange haired Shinigami slid his other hand beneath her thigh and paused as if expecting Rukia to abruptly snap kick him in the jaw. When she, thankfully, didn't he tightened his grip on her leg and gradually began manipulating her hip joint back into place.

They sat like that for a couple of minutes, Rukia occasionally wincing or digging her fingers into her arms from the pain while Ichigo tried to keep his face from melting off his skull in embarrassment. Just when he was starting to think that nothing short of surgery would relocate her hip, he felt the joint finally click into place and he abruptly scrambled away. His companion didn't seem to notice how flustered he was, more fascinated by the fact that the pain had abruptly vanished without a trace and was quick to climb to her feet to test the appendage. She bent her knee a few times, swung it back and forth, then firmly planted it on the ground beneath her.

"Just don't go overboard for a while," Ichigo cautioned, not quite looking her in the eye. "It won't take much right now for it to pop back out again."

"Right. Let's go." Rukia turned to the front door, gripped the handle firmly and knew without even trying that these doors were sealed as well.

"I am getting so sick of this," Ichigo snarled, kicking the door in frustration.

Rukia took a few steps back, taking on her familiar kidou stance and pointing her index finger at the door. She wasn't sure she'd be able to break the door down, but it was worth a try. "Hadou number four," was as far as she got before Ichigo knocked her hands aside.

"Are you crazy?! What if you knock the house down?!" Irritatingly enough, he made a valid point.

"Then I guess we'll have to look for another way in." Rukia suggested, already moving along the perimeter of the house in search of a window or another door. Unfortunately, the sides and back of the house were walled off and probably only accessible by crossing over from the lake which was not an option. Also, the only visible windows were located on the second story and most of them looked too small to climb in through.

"Oi! Over here!" Rukia turned, barely able to see the teenage boy through the heavy rainfall even though he only stood a few yards away.

To the right of the main entrance, Ichigo had found another door that looked something akin to a servant's entrance. After confirmation from his companion that this door was sealed with nothing more than an ordinary lock, he slammed his shoulder into it a few times before successfully breaking it in. Both Shinigami stepped inside to find themselves on a candle lit stairwell leading down, grateful to be out of the downpour, and began ringing out parts of their soaked clothing. Ichigo suddenly paused in his task, turning and glancing around as though he had heard something.

"What is it?" Rukia pressed after several moments of silence

"Yuzu and Karin are close. I can feel them."

_Sae…_

_I was wrong…_

_Can I not save anyone?_

_Will anyone forgive me?_

Itsuki Tachibana

A/N: I'm kinda thinking I might need to up the rating to M (or maybe put some kind of warning in the summary at least) since I'm starting to have entirely too much fun torturing the characters. Agree? Disagree? Also, if the format looks kinda different from previous chapters, it's because I use Open Office now. It pretty much owns.

Reviews are, as always, greatly appreciated and give the author many warm fuzzies. Seriously, if I could give you all cookies, I would. They'd have to be store bought though because I've recently learned that I was born without an ounce of culinary aptitude.


	7. Chapter Seven

Obligatory Author's Note: Yep, chapter seven all by itself. It's kinda bad how long it's been taking me to write, but I've just been...out of it (for lack of a better term) lately for various reasons and it's been a struggle for me to get _anything_ done.

A Note to Nintendo of America: WII WANT FATAL FRAME IV!!!

The Village

**Chapter Seven**

"_If the ritual is not performed the X will open. Inhuman wretches shall burst forth from the X, villagers will be engulfed by the X, and the sky will be plunged into darkness. The darkness will spread over the land for generations, awaking the X."_

_- Disaster Tome_

Yuzu moved solemnly through the house, happily greeted by servants, family members, and veiled priests alike as she calmly strode past them. Her fogged mind didn't even notice that most of them were missing eyes, limbs, faces, or had deep cuts crisscrossing their pale bodies. All she understood was that she was only received so warmly because the villagers needed her to survive, and all she was to them was a means to prolong their lives. Yuzu didn't really care, though. She had already known this for a long time, having been told so countless times by Itsuki, her sister...everyone, really. Some just used prettier words than others.

None of that mattered anymore. She was here, and her sister Yae (Karin?) was not. She felt miserable thinking of her twin sibling abandoning her, leaving her behind in spite of constantly promising otherwise. Yuzu had still held hope that at any moment, Yae would come bursting into the Kurosawa mansion sobbing apologies, yet that small hope was beginning to fade. Surely it couldn't take her sister _this_ long to make her way back into the village. Everyone else seemed to be losing hope just as quickly. If Yae wasn't found soon, Sae (or was her name Yuzu...she couldn't remember...) would have to perform the ritual alone.

"Yae will come back for me...she won't make me do this alone. She promised," Sae told herself. And even if her sister didn't make it in time, she would do the best she could by herself to make certain that the ritual succeeded. That way, she could wait for Yae forever. No matter how long it took for her to return, Sae would be there waiting.

Now flanked by priests, Sae was led through her own house like a prisoner and she knew her destination. No doubt she would be taken to the room of the Ceremony Master – her father – to be scolded, lectured, maybe even interrogated on the location of Yae. Afterwards, she would be taken to the storehouse which would act as a makeshift cell. It was not so long ago, she remembered with a grim smile, that an outsider she had befriended was held captive in that cell before being made into a sacrifice. She had tried to help him escape, but...

As she moved through the house however, she swore she heard a distorted voice calling out to her (no, someone named Yuzu, not her...) from what sounded like very far away. She almost thought it was only her imagination until the voice grew louder, clearer, and more familiar. She could almost place a name to the voice she heard. Yuzu (no...Sae...) paused outside of the Ceremony Master's room, turning to look down the corridor she had come from in search of the girl calling to her. The feeling of fear started to creep into her veins once again, the familiar hallway looking more like a twisted nightmare and the men surrounding her becoming frightening strangers.

One of the veiled priests roughly nudged her in the direction of her Master's room and in that simple motion she abruptly returned to her senses. She was not Yuzu, these men were not strangers, this was her home, and the voice she heard was merely a figment of her imagination. Without any further hesitation, Sae entered her father's room.

Karin cautiously moved further into the empty room, subconsciously rubbing away the chill that was seeping into her bare forearms. A flash of lightning closely followed by a crash of thunder briefly lit up the dark room, casting a silhouette against the far wall of a small figure on the opposite end of the room. She thought it had been a trick of the light until a few seconds later when she heard a door slide open, footsteps, and then it clicked shut.

"Yuzu!" She called out, running in the direction the sound had come from. When passing through the middle of the room, Karin's foot caught on the corner of the sunken fireplace and she stumbled. Upon regaining her balance, she stepped on something oddly lumpy and nearly tripped again. The young girl frowned and moved to step over it, not recalling seeing anything else occupying the room. After moving past the obstruction, her foot almost immediately collided with something else and lightning lit up the room once again.

What was once a vacant room was now littered with dozens of mutilated corpses.

Karin stumbled backwards in shock, her heel tangling with one of the dead bodies and gravity suddenly took over. Her fall being broken by a pile of corpses did nothing to ease her frayed nerves and she was already scrambling frantically to her feet when something next to her _shifted_. For the briefest of moments she completely froze and tried desperately to convince herself that it was only her imagination. Her self denial was thoroughly shattered when the room was suddenly alive with the sounds of pained groans and she promptly bolted to her feet when icy fingers weakly brushed past her arm.

Light infiltrated the room once more and Karin's throat constricted painfully at the sight that greeted her. The 'corpses' were _all_ moving now, some trying to amble to their feet, others climbing over each other with arms outstretched, every last one of them moving towards her. The ones laying at her feet were no exception, reaching up to grab at her legs, and she didn't intend to wait around and find out what they planned to do once they caught her. Viciously kicking a few in the head she pressed forward, knocking aside grasping hands and moving as quickly as she could to the door at the far end of the room that Yuzu had gone through.

Karin was stopped in her tracks yet again when another spirit abruptly appeared in front of her and the Kurosaki girl felt her heart stop. It was the same woman in the white, bloodstained kimono that she had seen back at the first house. The fear creeping up Karin's spine at the mere sight of the woman became tangible, frozen fingers that robbed her body of all movement. The spirit giggled maliciously, eyes dark with blood lust, and slowly began to advance on the young girl.

A hard lump rose in Karin's throat and she stumbled backwards, nearly tripping on another body and suddenly finding a pair of hands wrapped around her ankle. She gasped in panic and tried to shake them off only for another pair to wrap around her other leg. A sea of hands all attached to slowly moving corpses began to reach out for her, latching onto anything they could reach, while their owner's voices cried out to her in pain. She began to fight them more fiercely, her panic growing with every step the woman in the kimono took, and was barely aware that she had begun screaming at them to let her go.

"Are you leaving me again, sister?" The woman whispered, insane laughter threatening to burst from her throat. She was reaching out her hands as if preparing to pull Karin into a hug – or, more likely, to strangle her. The young girl moved back as far as the grasping hands would allow, the sheer closeness of the ghost tying all of her internal organs into painful knots.

"I'm...I'm not..." Karin whimpered, too frightened to even consider being disgusted with herself. Her fear began to manifest itself in the pit of her stomach, rolling together with all the anger and frustration already welling within her before releasing it all into three words. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

It was hard for Karin to determine what happened next, as she was suddenly blinded by an intensely bright light. She felt the fear evaporate from her body completely, and a fierce quake shook the very foundation of the mansion. The frigid hands that had latched onto her legs dissolved into nothingness and the moment she was free she blindly raced forward to the other side of the room without a second glance backwards. Flinging open the first door she could find and barreling straight through it, Karin nearly lost what was left of her lunch when she slammed gut first into a wooden railing and nearly tumbled over and into the garden beyond it. She was outside again.

After further examination she realized that wasn't entirely true. She had stumbled into an enclosed garden that had a staircase winding around the perimeter of it. Karin paused there for several seconds to catch her breath, realizing that she felt suddenly exhausted, and allowed the cool scent of rain and the light fragrance drifting from the garden to ease her nerves. She started slightly when lightning crackled through the sky with a resounding boom, and froze when a flash of yellow high on the staircase caught her eye.

"Yuzu!" Without a moment's hesitation, Karin bolted for the stairs and raced up them as fast as she could. In between her heavy gasps for air, she continued to shout her sister's name at the top of her lungs and slowly closed the distance between them. Yuzu reached the top step, and vanished into the corridor beyond, pushing Karin to run even faster. Her heart sped up in relief and joy when she too reached the top and found her sister standing no more than a few yards away, standing indecisively before a door. Just a few more seconds, a few more steps and she would be at her sister's side once again.

Instead, Karin watched helplessly in horror as her sister's eyes glazed over once more and she entered the room. The door slammed shut in Karin's face and the full weight of her shoulder against it did nothing to budge it. "Damn it!" She screamed furiously, pounding her fists against the door. "Yuzu! YUZU!"

"Sae, why have you done this?" She stopped upon hearing the deep, booming voice coming from beyond the door her sister had passed through. The words weren't spoken in a particularly loud voice yet they carried easily, cutting through the door as if it were made of paper and halting Karin's screams. "Every one in this village is in danger now, because of you!"

A softer voice spoke next, a voice that was similar to Yuzu's but – at the same time – was not Yuzu. "Father...I-"

"There is no time for these trivialities. Where is Yae? Where has she gone?"

A long pause followed and Karin held her breath. "I don't know...I fell off the path..." A sigh laced with frustration followed and Yuzu-Sae (whoever she was) was quick to speak up again albeit timidly. "I-I'm sure she'll return, Father."

"We don't have time," the man countered wearily. "You'll simply have to perform the ritual alone."

Another long pause. "...Yes, Father."

Karin's eyebrows furrowed together in concern. Itsuki had mentioned a ritual earlier and though he hadn't relinquished any details about it she guessed it wouldn't be a good thing to let Yuzu go through with it; especially since he made it sound like it was urgent that she – or rather, _Yae_ – get her out of the village as soon as possible. She was stirred from her thoughts when a door clicked shut from within the room while the heavy metallic 'shink' of a lock being unbolted alerted the girl that someone was about to come out into the hallway.

Spinning away from the door and pressing herself flat against the wall, Karin watched with bated breath as the door slid open and a translucent, gray haired man in a kimono exited the room. Much to her relief, he turned and headed in the opposite direction and she took the opportunity to silently slip inside the room before the door had a chance to slam shut. She hurried across the now vacant area to the only other exit in pursuit of Yuzu, finding herself in a large room with several torn paper screens scattered around haphazardly. She had only begun to wade through the mess when she caught sight of her twin through the doorway on the far wall, flanked by two veiled priests. Karin ducked behind one of the screens to avoid being seen and cautiously crept out when she was sure they were out of sight.

Staying low to the ground, she darted out of the room and immediately found herself on a stair case leading back down to the first floor. Karin descended as quickly and quietly as she could, reaching the bottom step just in time to see Yuzu and her escorts vanish through another doorway. She followed behind them as closely as she dared, ending up in a wide corridor with dusty, ratty cloth hanging so low from the ceiling that she had to duck under each one she encountered. The hallway eventually led them to another door and Karin waited for the ghosts to enter before hurrying forward and cautiously peeking into the room.

Inside, Yuzu was being directed into the next room alone, all her possible escape routes blocked by the veiled priests. The door – which Karin presumed led to a makeshift cell – was softly closed behind her and her escorts simply vanished into thin air. Karin hesitated for several seconds, suspecting that the spirits were aware of her presence and had laid a trap for her. After a handful of impossibly long moments ticked by, her impatience to get to her sister won out over caution and she quietly stepped inside the room. Trying the cell door while keeping a watchful eye on her surroundings, Karin was surprised when it gave way with little resistance. She blew out a relieved sigh and entered the cell without hesitation.

The inside of the room looked more like a small library than anything else. The far wall was lined with shelves crammed full of books and what looked like handwritten journals. A knee-high desk was situated against the left wall, decayed parchment and old brushes neatly organized on the rotted surface. In front of it was where Yuzu sat, kneeling on the flat, faded cushion with her hands folded primly in her lap and her gaze focused blankly on the wall in front of her. A small frown was tugging at the corner of her lips and when Karin blinked she could have sworn she saw – for the briefest of moments – the ghostly image of a dark haired woman in a white kimono overlaying her sister's figure.

"Yuzu," Karin called out firmly, cautiously approaching the girl out of fear she might vanish into thin air.

Yuzu turned slowly as though the movement itself was completely exhausting. "Yae...?" She murmured quietly, lifting her blank gaze to Karin's bewildered one.

"No!" Karin snapped, latching on to her sister's shoulders and giving her a firm shake. "It's me! Karin! And you're Yuzu!" Yuzu stared absently at her twin, showing no recognition at the name. "Snap out of it!" Her voice grew thick with unvoiced sobs that took no small amount of willpower to withhold.

"Yae...why did you run away? Why did you leave me?" Yuzu whispered, her voice distorting into a darker tone that definitely did not belong to the auburn haired girl. "You promised you'd stay with me."

Karin gave her another fierce shake. "Stop it," she growled, biting her lip furiously. "I am _not_ Yae and you are _not_ Sae! That thing back there was _not_ your father and this is _not_ your home!" Yuzu stared blankly at her sisters, causing the girl's frustration to grow. "Your name is _Kurosaki Yuzu_," she stated firmly. "_My_ name is Kurosaki Karin. Our father is a goat-chinned idiot named Isshin. And our mother was..." She paused and bit her lip, searching Yuzu's eyes for any recognition and felt a spark of hope when her blank facade wavered the tiniest bit. "We live in a house in Karakura, and we have a brother-"

A tear rolled down Yuzu's cheek as her soft voice interrupted, "Ichi-nii..."

"That's right." Karin nodded enthusiastically, unaware of the moisture accumulating in her own eyes. "And our adopted sister..."

"Rukia-nee." Life was beginning to return to her eyes and her shoulders began to quiver as more tears spilled over her face. "Karin-chan," she whimpered. The floodgate holding back the young girl's sobs promptly burst and she tossed herself into Karin's chest and cried into her shoulder. Karin unhesitatingly folded her sister into her embrace as the twins sank to the floor in exhaustion and relief.

"You don't need to bawl like a baby, Yuzu," Karin sniffled, wanting to restore at least some small sense of normalcy by teasing her twin. "You're too old for that."

"Meanie," Yuzu whined. "You're crying too, Karin-chan!"

Karin wiped stubbornly at her eyes. "I am not. Don't be stupid."

Both girls were rudely shaken into a panicked state when a loud thud reverberated through the room and Karin cursed herself thrice over for her foolishness even as a raw sensation tumbled through her stomach. She turned to look behind her, already knowing full well that the cell door she had left wide open was now sealed shut. All the strength was abruptly sapped from the dark haired girl leaving her without even the energy to laugh bitterly. Everything she had done to find Yuzu and bring her back to her senses had all been rendered nearly meaningless by a single door. Even worse was that everything was eventually leading up to this, a neatly laid out trap that she had unhesitatingly stepped into.

"They wanted us both," she realized, voice barely above a murmur. Sae's father had said it earlier, hadn't he? He needed both girls for the ritual they were preparing to perform and now...he had them. "Without twins...there is no meaning..." Karin wasn't sure what persuaded her mouth to form the words, but they worried Yuzu.

"Karin-chan, what is it? What's wrong?" Yuzu pressed quietly. The timidity in her voice reminded Karin that she still need to stay strong, even if only for her sister's sake. She couldn't break now that they were finally together again. She also couldn't lie to her sister about the situation.

"We were brought here for a reason. The ghosts here want us to do something, that's why...." She trailed off, unsure how to continue.

"So if we help, they'll let us go?" Yuzu asked in quiet hopefulness, drawing her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around herself securely. "Right?"

Karin bit her lip, "I don't think....they want us to perform some kind of ritual but I don't think it's something we should do. I think...it's not something we're going to live through." Her mind recalled her previous vision back in the forest, her hands latching onto Yuzu's throat and slowly squeezing...They couldn't possibly want her to do _that_, could they? Horrified, she drew away from her twin slightly and clutched her hands to her chest as if to keep them from spontaneously attacking Yuzu.

"I'm scared," Yuzu whimpered, drawing her knees to her chest. "I want to go home."

"We'll get out of this somehow, Sae. I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

Yuzu seemed to hesitate, fixing a vaguely concerned stare at her sister. "Karin-chan?"

"Yes?"

"You...you just called me Sae."

* * *

"Yuzu and Karin are close. I can feel them."

Rukia waited silently as Ichigo pinpointed the location of his sisters. She didn't have to wait long. Only a few seconds after he initially noticed their reiatsu, he was plodding down the stairs at a hurried pace with her at his heels. The shinigami duo found themselves in a dirt floor basement with a round well made of stones sitting in the middle. The moment their feet touched earth, the chill in the air abruptly transitioned into a biting cold that made Ichigo's breath hitch in his throat. An eerie fog pooled into the room, spilling over the mouth of the well, and rolling over the ground to bury both Shinigami up to their ankles.

Ichigo growled in irritation, "What now?!" Rukia had already assumed her familiar kidou stance, one palm flat and arm braced with her free hand. Neither were surprised when a shaky, translucent arm lifted unsteadily from the mouth of the dilapidated stone well and gripped the side for support. A head of long, stringy hair emerged moments later and the Shinigami duo were given only the briefest glimpse of her ashen, wrinkled face with sunken white eyes before the roiling mist completely enveloped the entire room. Ichigo stepped closer to Rukia as the pale fog thickened and began to steal away their visibility, determined not to get separated from his companion. Even then, standing barely half a foot apart she looked like no more than a blurred silhouette.

Rukia reached out with her senses, trying to pinpoint the spirit's location by its reiatsu alone. After several moments of no luck, she cursed under her breath in frustration. "The fog seems to be masking its presence. I can't detect the demon anywhere." She felt Ichigo's hand grasp her still outstretched arm, gently tugging her off to the side.

"We should move to the wall and try to find an exit," he stated, his tone urgent but quiet. Rukia submitted to his tugging in silent agreement, shifting his grip to intertwine her fingers with his while Ichigo moved forward with his free hand stretched out in front of him. They moved together in as straight a line as they could manage, Ichigo leading and feeling around for a wall while Rukia watched their surroundings for any sign of the demon.

"Where...are...you?" Both Shinigami froze at the wispy voice that sounded entirely too close for comfort.

"That's eerie," Ichigo muttered, subconsciously tightening his grip on Rukia's hand. "C'mon." She was urged along at a faster pace, stopping only a few seconds later when Ichigo's hand collided with a solid, rock surface. Without pausing he turned to follow it, practically hugging the wall while keeping one hand trailing over the surface of the slick, stone foundation. "I think we're get-"

Ichigo didn't get a chance to finish his thoughts because a pair of hands abruptly emerged from the stone wall as easily as if it was mere water and latched onto his throat. The Shinigami was roughly pulled flush against the wall and he dropped Rukia's hand to pry at the fingers that were slowly crushing his trachea. The spirit's hands pushed him forward and Ichigo stumbled before his head was yanked back and cracked sharply against the stone. He slumped and his arms fell limp, left dizzy and barely conscious from the blow.

Rukia moved in to help, digging her fingers into the demon's frigid wrists and pulling against its hold with all her strength. The demon only dug in harder at the resistance, its fingernails piercing Ichigo's neck while Rukia's hands began to grow numb from the biting cold that was rapidly seeping into her skin. Eventually, she was forced to let go and attempt to shake some life back into her limp hands. With the force acting against them gone, the demon's hands loosened fractionally and one began to slide up to Ichigo's jawline, moving to cup his chin.

It was going to break his neck.

Rapidly coming up with a new tactic, Rukia latched onto the spirit's wrists again and yanked both Ichigo and demon forward away from the wall. A wrinkled face framed by long black hair emerged from the stone, shrieking. "My son! Give him back! Give him back!"

"Bakudo number one: Sai!" The woman's arms were forcefully wrenched from Ichigo's neck and twisted behind her back by the binding kidou. Now off balance and with nothing holding him up, the teenager tumbled forward on top of the female Shinigami. The spirit toppled to the ground next to them, writhing and gnashing her teeth in frustration until Rukia fired a point blank Shakkahou into her skull. Slowly, the remnants of the demon's body faded from existence along with the thick mist.

Rukia let out a breath of relief and carefully rolled Ichigo over onto his back. Her cobalt gaze was drawn to the bright red, hand shaped marks on his neck and frowned. It was the first time any of the demons had been able to leave a physical mark. Wordlessly she moved her hands over the raw flesh, still bitterly cold to the touch, a soft green glow surrounding her hands. Slowly but surely his skin began to heal and grow warm.

"Shit, that hurt," Ichigo coughed, eyes slightly glazed and half lidded. He started to roll onto his side before Rukia pushed him back down. He tried a few more times, ending in the same result, and frowned in confusion.

"Hold still, I'm not done yet." Ichigo suddenly stared up at Rukia, looking almost puzzled. He lifted his hand up shakily towards her face and she tried to ignore him and concentrate on healing his injury. She succeeded, until he dropped his large hand on top of her head and partially obscured her vision. "What the hell are you doing?"

Ichigo's eyebrows furrowed together in concentration as he contemplated his answer. "I don't know." His slightly loopy tone suggested that he didn't have an answer to begin with. "It's irritating." He added, not moving his hand.

"What?"

"This thing," he started tugging on her black bang, frowning again. "What is this thing?"

Rukia swatted his hand away, scowling. "How hard did you hit your head, anyway?" The blank look on his face suggested he didn't exactly remember hitting his head at all. "Sit up," she ordered, moving behind Ichigo to keep him steady and patch up his bleeding skull enough to draw him back into coherent thought. It took several minutes for him to return to his senses, but once he did Ichigo was quickly back on his feet and searching for his sisters again.

He led the Shinigami duo to another staircase in the opposite corner of the entrance, this one leading back up above ground, and Ichigo rushed ahead. "We're getting a lot closer to them," he informed Rukia as he climbed the last step and rounded the corner, finding himself in a hallway leading into a room with a shin high table in the middle surrounded by moldy cushions. He paused briefly, brown eyes fixating on the door beyond it that had a small window cut into it.

"There," he stated, rushing towards the door. "Yuzu! Karin!" He called, frustrated when he couldn't get the door to budge and pounded his fist against it. Inside, he heard a shuffling sound and two familiar voices that made a wave of relief wash over him.

"Ichi-nii!"

"Ichigo!"

"Are you both all right?"

"We aren't hurt," Karin responded, her voice uncharacteristically shaky.

"Hold on, I'll get you out of there!" Ichigo gripped the door handle, put his foot against the wall for leverage, and began pulling against it with all of his strength. For all of his efforts, the door budged only the barest of inches and would go no farther.

"Ichi-nii..." He heard Yuzu whimper from the other side and his heart twisted violently in his chest.

Rukia moved to stand next to Ichigo, placing her palm against the door and frowning. Her cobalt gaze turned to the rusted bronze lock decorated with an indiscernible pattern. "Stand back," she stated, pointing her index finger at it. When Ichigo stepped back, she unleashed a Byakurai spell on the lock and completely obliterated it.

The door creaked open slightly before being roughly shoved open by Yuzu, who didn't hesitate to nearly tackle her older brother to the ground. The auburn haired girl latched onto Ichigo's waist and sobbed into his stomach. He wordlessly sat down and pulled Yuzu into his lap, folding his sister into an embrace and sighing in relief. Karin quietly shuffled out of the cell afterwards, trying desperately not to shake and break down into tears now that she now longer had to be the strong one. Her choice was taken from her when her brother forcefully included her in the family reunion and she wound up crying on his shoulder with shards of her broken resolve lying at her feet.

The Kurosaki's sat huddled together for several minutes until Yuzu managed to cry herself to sleep and Karin pulled away, rubbing her puffy eyes until they were tearless and red. Rukia, not wanting to intrude, had stayed at a distance and kept an eye out for any hostile demons. "We should get out of here," She reminded Ichigo. "If they wanted them here this badly, they aren't going to let us go so easily."

Ichigo nodded, scooping Yuzu into his arms before standing. "I guess we're going back the way we came," he groaned. "Sorry, Karin, but I'm not going to risk losing you again." Shifting Yuzu so that her head was resting against his broad shoulder with his right arm curled around her waist and under her knees, he lifted Karin with his free arm into a similar position.

"I can run by myself," she protested in an unusually quiet voice.

"Don't care. I'm older, so deal with it." The severity and stress of the situation were the only things keeping the siblings from poking their tongues out at each other in annoyance. Regardless, Karin didn't offer any further resistance and Ichigo turned to Rukia, locking his serious, dark brown gaze with hers. "I'm counting on you."

Rukia nodded, understanding the weight and meaning behind his words. She was being trusted with his safety and, in turn, the safety of his sisters. "I won't let you down." Without any further delay, the small group hurried back down towards the basement with the petite Shinigami leading them. She hesitated briefly at the foot of the stairs before motioning Ichigo to go ahead while she watched his back. As they had both feared, the room temperature plummeted and the room came alive with the eerie whispers of malicious spirits.

"Run!" Rukia urged, quickly moving to face the nearest threat – a mere child, she noted with a grimace – that had stumbled through the wall and made straight for Ichigo's leg in an attempt to trip him up. The small boy was gone in an instant, along with the blue light of her Soukatsui, and she sincerely hoped neither her companion or his sisters had seen the child torn apart.

Ichigo, tightening his grip on his sisters, did as Rukia commanded and made straight for the wooden steps leading to the courtyard of the mansion. He didn't see any of the fight that took place other than the flashes of kidou that briefly lit up the dim basement or the few instances when his path was blocked, then abruptly cleared after the spirit was completely blindsided by the female Shinigami. He never once had to swerve to avoid any obstructions, Rukia taking them out before the thought could even begin to process. He had half a mind to thank her later, when they were back at their campsite, packing their stuff and getting the HELL back to Karakura.

The duo flew up the stairs once they reached them, ascending two to three steps with each stride. Without testing the exit and throwing caution to the wind Rukia backed away from the door and lifted her hand. "Shakkahou!" A red ball of fire exploded from her hand and blasted the door clear off it's hinges.

Without sparing another moment, they raced out into the downpour and the courtyard of the mansion. Not bothering to see if the exterior doors were locked, Rukia blasted them apart with a Soukatsui spell and raced out onto the bridge stretching over the lake. A swarm of grasping arms rising from the lake greeted them, threatening to pull them under if they slowed or strayed too close to either side of the bridge. The rain that had been battering them brutally only moments ago dissipated, a thick fog beginning to roll in from over the lake. Before it managed to completely engulf them, they made it to the end of the bridge and the last set of doors were blasted apart by kidou.

Two demons in tattered clothing and wielding sickles were waiting for them outside. Unhesitatingly, Rukia jump kicked the first while simultaneously shooting a bolt of white hot lightning through the second. Not giving the demons a chance to recuperate they darted past them and down the weaving street, stopping only when they had returned to the base of Misono hill. Ichigo gingerly shifted Yuzu in his arms after lowering Karin to the ground, gasping for air and watching his surroundings alertly.

"Somehow, I thought they'd be a little more persistent than this," Ichigo panted slightly.

Rukia turned her gaze towards the hill, eyes narrowing. She was favoring her previously injured leg again, hoping it wouldn't need to be reset. "It's because they know we can't escape. We may have gotten out of the Kurosawa house, but beyond that..."

"The barrier," Ichigo groaned. He'd completely forgotten about it. "Any chance of breaking through?"

Rukia shook her head. "I couldn't even begin to approach it. Unfortunately, it's beyond my skill." An impossibly heavy sense of hopelessness settled over them.

"What are we supposed to do then? Hope Soul Society suddenly notices this place sometime within the _next _20 years?" Ichigo growled impatiently, forgetting they had an audience who wasn't supposed to know anything about Soul Society.

"After they realize we're missing they might..." Rukia trailed off into silence. Even when Soul Society took notice of her disappearance, they wouldn't know where to look. Thanks to the barrier surrounding the place, they wouldn't even be able to track her down. "Something has to be maintaining this barrier. If we can find out what, then maybe..."

"Ichigo." Both Shinigami turned at the sound of Karin's voice and upon seeing the very serious, stern look on her face Ichigo panicked slightly. "I want to know what is going on." Silence fell between the two siblings, Karin giving her brother a hard stare while Ichigo tried to think of some kind of explanation that didn't involve the truth. When he finally did open his mouth, he was interrupted. "Don't lie to me. You and Rukia-san, I know what you are. I want the truth."

Flabbergasted was the only way to describe the expression that crossed his face. After several moments of internal struggle, Ichigo gave up on finding a lie and came clean with his sister. "This village...these ghosts running around here aren't normal ones. They're demons." Karin nodded, only mildly surprised. It wasn't big news that the things attacking her weren't ordinary spirits. "When we came here, we passed through a barrier that's not going to let us back through again until we do something about it."

"They want to keep us here," Karin bit her lip. "Yuzu was acting strange ever since we first got here...like she was possessed. And I..." The young girl trailed off, uneasy about giving words to her thoughts. It was bad enough envisioning strangling her sister without having to tell her older brother about it. "They want us to do something, I think...but..."  
"Don't worry about it," Ichigo cut in, resting his hand on top of Karin's head. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you or Yuzu." That simple sentence relieved Karin of a tremendous pressure and she half heartedly swatted his hand away. He gave her one of his faint smiles (because he was apparently too cool for real smiles) before turning towards Rukia. "So we just need to knock out the barrier and then we can get the hell outta here, right?"

"The barrier's source," she corrected. "Something that powerful and that old can't possibly be self-sustaining...but considering how difficult it is to track reiatsu in this place and since we don't even know what we're looking for to begin with..." Rukia shook her head, eyes narrowing in agitation.

Ichigo sighed heavily. "This sucks. I don't suppose blasting everything to pieces would be helpful?" He questioned hopefully.

"Well it would certainly draw plenty of unwanted attention. The source could be anything. Something as big as a statue or as small as a key, or it could even be sustained by one or more of the demons lurking around." She crossed her arms and gave their surroundings a once over as if searching for any visual clues. "It might even be outside of the village for all we know."

"With our luck..." Ichigo grumbled, feeling the intense urge to find something solid to slam his head into.

"What about your other forms?" Karin spoke up. She had seen her brother topple Hollows the size of houses with his sword so a barrier shouldn't be a problem.

Ichigo shifted Yuzu in his arms. "Other...? Our Shinigami forms?" She nodded, even though she had never heard the actual term before. It was a very fitting title. "Well..."

"We can't right now," Rukia cut in. "In order to become Shinigami, Ichigo and I need to leave our bodies. We can't leave them without special 'tools' which, we don't currently have anymore." Everyone's spirits seemed to deflate even further after that, the situation looking more hopeless the more they dwelled on it. It seemed like the only option left was to search every inch of the village and hope they found something.

A though abruptly occurred to Karin. "Itsuki might know," she spoke up, drawing puzzled gazes from the two Shinigami. "There's a ghost boy in a storehouse, down that way," she pointed. "He helped me find Yuzu and seems to know a lot about the village. He might be able to tell us something." Ichigo and Rukia both exchanged glances.

"I guess it's worth a shot. Let's go."

_Look for the twins  
For the sake of the village…  
We must perform the ritual again  
The Kusabi alone is not enough…  
Look…  
If they are not twins  
There is no meaning... _

_Villager_

A/N: Part of me doesn't like part of this chapter. Part of me wonders if I should get a beta tester or at least someone to kick me around when I get lazy. Part of me believes Rukia's kidou is a little too convenient and wants to find a way to take it from her. Most of me enjoyed writing Loopy Ichigo, even though he only lasted about a quarter of a page. All of me hopes you will review :)

If anyone's interested and happens to be in the general vicinity of Bowling Green, OH around March 28th, there's a free anime convention going on at BGSU and I will be there participating in Artist's Alley. You can drop by, maybe buy some stuff, kick the crap out of me in person for the slow updates...it's all good. I won't have any loopy Ichigo's but I will have a few of Rukia's Bankai (for any of you who've read my other fic, 'Bankai') along with Kenpachi's Bankai.


	8. Chapter Eight

Obligatory Author's Note: From now on this story's rating has been upped to 'M'. After a certain part in the second half of this chapter, I thought it was probably a good idea. You'll probably know it when you see it. This ended up taking longer than I wanted it to, but I had a bit of trouble with the second half and a bit more trouble when I bruised my lungs and doing pretty much anything other than lying face down on the floor was painful.

**The Village**

**Chapter Eight**

"_The old passageway under Kureha Shrine has been sealed ever since some twins tried to escape through there long ago. Although the path is sealed, a passageway still leads out. Opening the seal should make it possible to leave the village. The pinwheel keys that open the seal have been handed down through the families of four Veiled Priests. After passing through a passageway, you only have to run through the forest and remember to never look back."_

_Itsuki Tachibana_

_Sae wearily trudged along the dirt path, flanked by villagers that she once called friends now casting wary glances of anger and disapproval, nudging her roughly when her pace slowed too much for their liking. In spite of the treatment, she couldn't blame or hate anyone but herself. If she hadn't selfishly run away in the first place she would never have been separated from Yae, and Itsuki wouldn't have been locked away like a criminal._

_"Itsuki...I want to see him one more time...I want to apologize to him." It had been her demure request shortly after a group of villagers had found her wandering in the forest, lost. Even though she knew she didn't deserve this small amount of kindness for putting them all through so much grief, they had agreed to escort her to the warehouse he had been locked up in for the past few days. Locked up...because of her..._

_Sae waited patiently before the warehouse doors, heart heavy as a pair of the villagers removed the chains and lock. The door was opened with caution as if they were afraid Itsuki – gentle, kind-hearted Itsuki, - would attempt to rush the door and break through. When no attempt was made, she was ushered inside. Suddenly feeling her shame become palpable, she bowed her head in remorse and fought back the tears springing in her eyes._

_"Itsuki...it's me. I'm sorry, so sorry..." She mustered the strength to look up, expecting to meet his forgiving eyes and gently smiling face and choked harshly on her next words. Stumbling backwards and gasping, she drew the attention of the villagers who rushed in after her and were terribly unmoved by the horrifying sight before her._

_Itsuki had killed himself._

_The sweet, white haired boy who took such loving care of his younger sister, had sobbed after sacrificing his brother to save Sae and Yae (crying harder when he discovered he failed), and gave so much of himself to try and prevent her from becoming a sacrifice was hanging lifelessly from the warehouse rafters, suspended by his neck. She flinched and looked away, clutching her shaking hands to her chest and fiercely swallowing the cries rising in her throat. It wasn't fair. Itsuki, at the very least, deserved a better end than this._

_"We must go," A villager reminded her, a forced gentleness to his urgent tone. "The ritual is the only way." Sae wanted to beg for a few seconds, even another moment longer to silently mourn the passing of her closest friend but she knew she had already pressed her luck to it's limits. Nodding, she took one last glance at the boy and steeled herself for the task ahead._

_Sae would do her best to complete the ritual by herself. Then she would become a butterfly and could wait for her sister to return. She would become a butterfly and visit Itsuki and his brother in Heaven and finally apologize for all the trouble she had caused._

_"Itsuki...I'm so sorry...please wait for me."_

Karin silently led the Shinigami duo through the village in the direction of the storehouse Itsuki was held prisoner in. Rukia and Ichigo followed behind her, walking side by side, while Yuzu was still fast asleep in her brother's arms. It was unsurprising that she was able to sleep so soundly after the intense emotional fatigue that had been heaped onto her the moment she'd snapped out of her trance. Still, Karin couldn't help but feel the uneasiness gnawing anxiously at her gut. In her current state, it would be so easy for the ghosts – or 'demons', as she'd been earlier corrected – to take over Yuzu's mind again. What other things were they capable of making her do?

Shaking her head wearily, Karin trudged onward past the row of dilapidated houses, spotting the familiar stone well near the end of the path. She hadn't quite noticed it until now, but her eyes and limbs felt heavy with exhaustion. She yawned as the thought struck her and wondered how long they had been trapped in this village. It felt like ages ago since she first arrived with Yuzu but – judging by the fact that it was still dark out – it couldn't have been more than a handful of hours. Then again, it _had_ been bright and sunny out only seconds before she had stepped beyond the barrier and was plunged into night...

"This is it," she made her abrupt realization vocal, so deep in her thoughts that she'd nearly passed by the storehouse altogether. Ichigo stepped past his sister, tugging at the rusted lock on the door before casting an apologetic, imploring look at Rukia. It wasn't until she had hobbled forward and began examining the obstruction that Karin realized how haggard they looked.

It wasn't glaringly obvious, but Rukia seemed to be favoring her right leg and her bare arms were glistening in the moonlight with a light sheen of sweat. Her cobalt eyes seemed a little duller and less focused then usual. Ichigo was yawning, wincing, and rubbing his throat every minute or so, his own dark eyes drifting shut for several seconds at a time. He had even started to slump under the slight weight of his younger sister. They were all tired and now that the adrenaline rush of escaping from the Kurosawa mansion was depleted they would need to rest soon. But where? Where in this twisted village was a safe place?

The clang of metal on wood startled Karin from her daze as the lock – now barely more than shrapnel – fell away from the door and Rukia pried it open with great difficulty. The aged wood shuddered and it's hinges gave up completely and the petite girl had to step to the side when the door fell over with a dull thud and kicked up a cloud of dirt. She gingerly stepped over the threshold and promptly froze. Ichigo recognized the alert stiffness in her posture and both he and Karin moved to stand at her side, their reactions and expressions turning horrified as a horrendous stench assaulted their noses.

Ichigo pushed Karin back protectively even though it was too late to hide her from the sight of the rotting white haired boy hanging from the rafters, suspended by his neck. She felt numb to horror after all of the vividly gruesome visions she was subjected to, but an unexpected sadness welled up within her. He was already a ghost when she first spoke to him so the fact that he was dead was made perfectly clear to begin with, but seeing his corpse now after he helped her save Yuzu left her feeling empty inside. He had died with major regrets on his conscious, believing that taking his life was the only way to atone for his brother dying in vain and not being able to save Sae, when all he _had _done was try to stop the ritual and help...

Karin felt her train of thought completely derail before backtracking and trying to determine how exactly she knew all this about a boy she'd only spoken to once.

"Itsuki...I'm so sorry..." Yuzu murmured in her sleep, a tear slipping from the corner of her eye. Karin eyed her sister worriedly when Ichigo turned away from the dead boy hastily in case she woke up. She didn't need to be scarred any more than she probably already was.

Rukia stepped further inside, the wrinkling of her nose the only indication that the stench of decayed flesh bothered her, and furrowed her eyebrows together. "He must have died a long time ago with the other villagers but, his body..."

"He should be nothing but bones by now," Ichigo completed her thought quietly, turning back to face her only after making certain Yuzu was still sound asleep. After a few moments of contemplation, his amber eyes grew wide. "It was the middle of the day when we were outside the barrier but as soon as we came through..."

Rukia shook her head. "Impossible. It's almost like time has completely stopped in this place...but the buildings are falling apart." A few glances around the room confirmed that this construct was no different in it's state of dilapidation. "And this is the only body we've come across so far, there should be dozens more."

The memory of a man being dragged down a corridor along with the vision of countless people being slaughtered in the Kurosawa house hit Karin hard and she swallowed. Except for the bloodstains left in their wake, she hadn't seen any sign of corpses anywhere in the entire house. Did that mean their bodies all taken somewhere? The idea didn't really make any sense, but what else could have happened to them? The girl bit her lip and turned back to the door, feeling her stomach begin to sour at the foul smell.

"So what do we do now?" Ichigo's aggravated tone was watered down by exhaustion and his scowl was half-hearted. "We aren't any closer to figuring out how to leave."

Rukia wasn't paying attention and didn't answer, her sweeping gaze drawn to a piece of parchment pinned to the wall above a well used writing desk pushed back into a corner. The paper was yellowed, creased from being folded and unfolded, and torn around the edges but it wasn't particularly remarkable except the fact that it looked like it might be a map of the village. Hobbling over to it and stepping carefully over fallen bits of rafters, Rukia studied the map with a critical eye and took special note of the two red X marks, each over one of the smaller buildings that was settled on the outskirts of the village. Three of the other buildings were tagged with smaller X's made with regular black ink.

"Rukia?" Her cobalt gaze drifted down to the desk, still unresponsive, and settled on an open journal made of bound parchment. Some of the kanji was smudged or faded beyond recognition and parts of the page were completely torn off but she was able to make out the important parts.

_Although the...a passageway still leads out. Opening the seal should...to leave the village. The pinwheel keys that open the seal...families of four Veiled Priests. I was able to find the pinwheel for...storehouse..._

Rukia flipped over to the next page and something slid out from between the pages and into her hand. It was a flat, circular object divided into even quarters by four different colors. Examining it for a few seconds, she started to read the next page.

_The three other... are hidden in the...houses. Nobody expects me to... At that time it should be easy to take the keys._

Turning her gaze back to the three marked buildings on the map and suddenly feeling a surge of hope, Rukia carefully took the fragile map down from the wall before moving back towards the entrance with more energy in her step. It was probably a long shot, but it was the only one they had at this point. Ichigo cast a questioning glance at the petite Shinigami when she moved past him to stand outside, his gaze falling to the parchment and journal in her hands.

"What's that?"

"It might be our way out of here," Rukia responded, tucking the book under her arm while alternating between looking at the map and examining there surroundings. Ichigo and Karin moved to stand on either side of her to have a look for themselves. "The boy seemed to have been planning to escape the village and mentioned opening a seal. Apparently, the barrier has been up even before the village was abandoned though there seems to be a way out. Even if that's not the case, we might be able to find the source that's sustaining the barrier." After staring for a few seconds, Ichigo shifted Yuzu in his arms to point at one of the paths leading to one of the buildings marked in red.

"I've been there before. I was walking right along this river earlier after we split up." He traced his finger along the path while picturing the road in his mind and he stopped at a fork in the map, one leading to the first marked building while the other led to the second. "I stopped right here. There were stone steps going up here, but I didn't see a house or anything on the other path." He had been admittedly distracted at the time, first by the vision of a girl's death, then by Rukia's look-a-like.

"We'll try those places first then," Rukia nodded, gesturing for Ichigo to lead the way.

Rukia carefully tucked the delicate map into the bound journal before beginning to leaf through the pages as they walked. Not much of its contents were of any real interest, most of the entries revolving around a girl named Chitose who seemed to be his younger sister. A few other mentioned a twin brother named Mutsuki and two visitors to the village called Munakata and Makabe. Almost all of them vaguely alluded to two different rituals: The Inner Ceremony and the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual. No specifics were mentioned about either of them, except that the former involved an outsider and the latter involved twins. Either way the boy who had written about them did not speak of either of the ceremonies fondly, and had been locked in the storehouse for attempting to interfere.

A few pages flipped over, weighted down by an odd looking, thick, blue bookmark with faded characters printed on it. Rukia picked it up and turned it over in her free hand, realizing it was actually a thin package. "Film?" She muttered the word printed on it aloud, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. She only vaguely remembered hearing the term before but she couldn't quite place it. It must have been a human thing, she decided, looking up just in time to avoid plowing straight into Ichigo's back.

"What is it?" She questioned, already searching for the threat she assumed he had spotted.

"Let me see that." Ichigo turned and she held up the package for him to see. After a few seconds of scrutiny his expression seemed to brighten. "Hang on to that, we might need it."

Rukia blinked in confusion, looking the object over once more, before tucking it into one of the pouches on her backpack. She didn't have the faintest idea how this 'film' was supposed to be useful to them, but Ichigo probably knew more about the object than she did. While readjusting the straps on her pack Rukia paused mid-step, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end as the temperature around them sharply dropped. Beside her, Karin's knees wobbled and she dropped to the ground, gasping for air. Ichigo was immediately at his sister's side, white puffs of air curling out from his mouth and vanishing in the frigid air.

"They're coming," Karin gasped, hunched over as if a tremendous pressure was weighing down on her shoulders. Ichigo scooped her up in his free arm and stood, preparing to run, and nearly dropped both girls when they're path was abruptly blocked by – quite possibly – every demon in the village.

"Damn it!" Ichigo cursed, stepping backwards and glaring at the mass of approaching spirits. He quickly turned to back track the way they had come, stopping in his tracks when the path behind them was also blocked off by a wall of armed villagers.

"Mask of flesh and blood," Rukia's strained voice drew Ichigo's attention to her. Already she was gathering a flickering blue light into her shaking hands. "You who is...crowned with the name...of man..." she panted, sweat glistening from the effort of trying to draw enough power from her depleted reserves for the higher level spell. "Carve a twin lotus...into the wall of...blue flame and wait for the....abyss of great flame...in the distant sky!" The blue wisp of light abruptly came into sharp focus as a powerful wind began whipping around Rukia's body, gathering in her hands and steadily growing larger.

"Hadou sixty three!" She stepped backwards to brace herself and thrust both hands out. "Souren Soukatsui!" A veritable tidal wave of blue flames erupted from her hands and crashed into the hordes of demons blocking their path, eliciting brief cries of pain and leaving nothing in it's wake. "Go!" She immediately ordered, racing down the path only after her companion had gone on ahead.

It was hard to keep running. The kidou she had cast had taken more out of her than she anticipated and she was beginning to feel the heavy weight of the demon's reiatsu pushing down on her more insistently, suffocating her. Her bad leg was also slowing her down, growing weak and sending sharp bursts of pain up her spine. Somehow, she managed to press on, feeling hopeful when she passed the set of stone steps Ichigo mentioned earlier; they were almost there.

Rukia stumbled to a halt when Ichigo and his twin sisters abruptly vanished into thin air and she was left alone on the dirt path, turning frantically from side to side in search of her missing companion's while trying to catch her breath. It took a few moments for her to realize the demonic reiatsu had disappeared as well and the path beneath her feet was newer, better tended to, and the trees had lost their ominous oppressiveness. Even the air itself seemed fresher, having lost the faint scent of decay and death.

"Hi-Hisana-san!"

Rukia's breath caught in her throat as she felt her gigai's heart stop beating. Turning slowly, her cobalt eyes grew wide when she saw two girls with identical features and matching kimonos hurrying up the path in pursuit of an older girl. A scrawny girl with raven black hair, cobalt eyes, and wearing an old faded kimono that looked like a hand-me-down. A girl that could have passed for Rukia's twin.

"Hisana...neesama?" Rukia spoke barely above a whisper, taking a tiny step forward and reaching out for her older sister. Hisana did not respond, stopping barely a foot away from the Shinigami and turning back to the twin girls that were struggling to keep up.

"Hurry, you're almost there!" She called to them, panting heavily. "Go through the shrine, you'll find a passageway there. Whatever you do, don't look back. There's nothing left for you here." The twin girls nodded tearfully, wrapping their arms around Hisana's waist while murmuring their thanks.

_I won't let you die in this place. Even if they catch me and make me a Mourner, I won't regret this. The killing _has_ to stop!_

"Why are you here, Neesama?" Rukia reached out for her sister, pulling back sharply when her fingers swept through Hisana like she was made of fog.

It didn't make sense. Hisana couldn't be here because she had already gone on to Soul Society and died...she should have been reincarnated in the world of the living by now. Why would her sister be here – and younger, no less – in a village full of demons? And why couldn't Rukia touch her, or...

The realization suddenly clicked into place just as Rukia was nearly knocked off her feet by the sudden shift in landscape. She abruptly found herself standing before a sunken fireplace with her sister at her side. A man barged into the room only seconds later, stuffing a satchel into Hisana's arms, and looking her over with a sad expression as though he never expected to see her again. A woman entered shortly after, cradling a small bundle, with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry for all of this," Hisana clutched the satchel to her chest, a lone tear trailing down her face. "I just wanted to save them..."

_But I didn't save them. The path caved in...they both died..._

"That's enough," her father spoke sternly. "You need to escape while you still can. Your mother and I will stall the priests for as long as we can."

Hisana's eyes widened, "You...aren't coming with me?" The woman stepped forward, holding out the bundle that Rukia now recognized as a baby.

"Please, take care of your sister. See that she never..." a choked sob interrupted the woman, her husband placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "...that she never has to know the _horror_ of this place." A tiny, bittersweet smile crossed her face and Rukia felt like a hammer had been driven into her gut. This was her sister, these were her parents, and the little baby that was now being tucked into a small pack on Hisana's back was...

_I will protect you, Rukia._

The scenery lurched again, taking Rukia back to the forest path and she encountered her sister again, battered, bleeding, and gasping for breath at the base of the stone steps. "Almost there..." she gasped. "I won't...let them..." Several seconds passed as Hisana tried to catch her breath and Rukia found an inexplicable sadness welling within her as she desperately wished she could have known her sister like _this_ – not as the complete stranger who abandoned her in the Rukongai and died only a year before they would have met again.

Rukia reached out just as Hisana's head suddenly shot up and she gasped in panic when torchlight filtered in through the trees. Quickly regaining her bearings she made to sprint up the stone steps, stumbling several times in her rush and jostling the baby on her back. Irritated, it began to wail in retaliation.

"Shh, don't cry Rukia, it'll all be over soon." Hisana tried desperately to calm her baby sister into silence, but she had already drawn attention from the pursuing villagers. Still, she pressed forward as fast as her weakening legs would carry her. Only a few steps separated her from the shrine. Once she was outside of the village, they would pursue her no farther and then...

Hisana's next thoughts were stolen from her when a villager stepped into her path and a wooden pole snapped her smartly across the temple. Horror gripped her as she stumbled and tripped backwards on the stairs, Rukia's shrill cries filling her ears. She couldn't twist her body in time, couldn't do anything but helplessly slam into the stairs and cry out in anguish when she felt the tiny body crunch beneath her as her sister abruptly fell silent.

"R-Rukia?" she whimpered, shivering when she felt a warm, sticky liquid seep into the back of her tattered kimono. "Rukia...Rukia, no..." Hisana began sobbing, oblivious to the approaching villagers. Her cries were abruptly silenced as a flash of silver glinted in the moonlight and a sickle was plunged into Hisana's heart.

_I'm sorry...I'm so sorry! I couldn't even save you, my sister._

"Filthy traitor," one of the village man spat, roughly nudging the girl's corpse with his wooden pole. "Kick her down, before she gets her disgusting blood all over the shrine steps." Unhesitantly and without remorse, the two men kicked at Hisana's corpse and sent it rolling down the steps to lay in a tangled, boneless heap at the bottom.

Rukia stood at the top of the steps, fists clenched and trembling with barely contained rage. She didn't care that they couldn't see her, that she most likely wouldn't be able to lay a hand on them. She was too angry not to raise her fists and lunge at them, her fury and sadness bursting from her throat in a horrible shriek that was cut short when a hand on her shoulder roughly yanked her backwards.

For a brief sickening moment, Rukia felt completely weightless as the entire landscape around her was ripped away. Barely a second later found the disgruntled Shinigami back on the forest path, exactly as it had been before she first saw Hisana. The abrupt change of scenery left her dizzy and disoriented this time, with no small amount of anger and sorrow still boiling under her skin.

"Rukia, c'mon!" Ichigo's voice cut sharply through the hazy fog that settled over her mind as his grip on her shoulder tightened and yanked her into a run. The path was back to normal, the demonic reiatsu had returned, and Yuzu and Karin were missing from Ichigo's arms.

"Ichigo, where...?!" She began to slow until he tugged insistently on her arm again.

"Just shut up and get moving! Those things are right behind us!" He demanded, no small amount of urgency in his voice. Even as he spoke, the pale torchlight filtering through the trees grew brighter, the footsteps and voices of demons growing louder along with it. Rukia glared weakly at the back of his head for a few seconds but picked up her pace to match his.

Not long afterward, the path they were on was cut off by an exceptionally huge tree with a door carved into the side. Pushing it open, Ichigo practically yanked her inside before slamming it shut behind them. The pressure on their shoulders abruptly lifted and both Shinigami allowed themselves to drop to their knees in exhaustion. Rukia felt relieved when she spotted Karin and Yuzu leaning against each other next to several rows of red pinwheels and a multitude of lit candles, both of them sound asleep. Ichigo must have brought them here before he had even realized she had fallen behind.

It seemed uncharacteristically thoughtless of him to be leaving his sisters alone for even only a few minutes in this place, but now that Rukia had a chance to catch her breath and relax she realized this place felt...safe. The air here was warm, much warmer than outside, and untainted with the stench of demons and decay that saturated the rest of the village. Ichigo and Karin must've sensed the same thing, otherwise he wouldn't have left his sisters and she wouldn't have fallen asleep. Rukia's eyelids drooped at the thought, decided Yuzu and Karin had the right idea, and was more than eager to collapse into blissful unconsciousness.

"Rukia," She turned towards Ichigo as he settled himself against the wall next to her and fixated her with a stern expression, "what were you doing back there – what were you _thinking_? Were you _trying_ to get yourself killed?" He was being mindful of his sleeping sisters, but the low, serious tone in his voice was more effective than his usual shouting. Maybe it was that, or maybe she was too tired to think straight. Maybe she was too annoyed to get into an argument, or maybe she was still too emotional from witnessing her sister's death. Whatever the reason, Rukia cast her tired gaze to the floor and answered.

"I saw my sister."

Ichigo felt all of his anger deflate in an instant. "Sister?"

"Yes, I have...had a sister." Rukia inhaled deeply to keep her emotions in check, silently reminding herself that she'd never even _seen_ her sibling before now. Getting emotional about her was completely illogical. "Byakuya-niisama adopted me into the Kuchiki family, but he told me after I was nearly executed that he had been married to my sister. She died of illness before I even met Nii-sama."

Ichigo fell silent for several moments. "So then, you _did_ live here before," he stated quietly, mostly to himself.

"I was only an infant at the time, but yes." She seemed uncomfortable with the direction the discussion was headed, so Ichigo veered off onto another path.

"If your sister already moved on to Soul Society, then why would she be here now? How _could_ she be here?" The question reminded Rukia of her earlier conclusion.

"She isn't here, not in the literal sense." Rukia slid her backpack off her shoulders leisurely as if the simple task was exhausting and sat it by her feet. She scooted backwards to lean against the tree wall and crossed her arms over her chest. "If time really has stopped in this place then..." She paused, trying to think of a way to properly explain her conclusion without the luxury of the sketchbook she had left back at the Kurosaki house.

"All of the spirits trapped here have been demons, but some I've seen weren't...anything. I couldn't touch them or sense them, but I could see them." Ichigo thought back on his earlier encounter with Rukia's look-a-like – her sister, he corrected himself – and nodded. "You know as well as I do that spirits are just as solid as humans – at least, where other spirits and Shinigami are concerned. I haven't heard of something like this happening before so I can only guess, but I don't think they're spirits at all."

Ichigo frowned slightly. "What do you think they are?"

"They seem more like...imprints." Rukia tilted her head back and closed her eyes. "It's difficult to explain. It's as though we're seeing images from the past."

"Like a movie?" Ichigo supplied. "We see everything that's happening but we can't actually interact."

"Yes, something like that."

"Makes sense," he conceded, fixating his gaze on his sisters when Karin shifted in her sleep. "In _this_ place it makes sense, at least. This village is...well it's a fucked up place. I don't think time is stopped, though." Rukia opened one eye to stare at him inquisitively. "The buildings are falling apart, the weather changed earlier back at the Kuro-whatever house, and the clouds and moon are both moving. I'd say it's more like time is repeating itself."

Rukia's eye slid shut again. "Hmm," was the only thing she offered in response and she fell silent for several seconds.

"Anyways, we can figure out all that junk later. I'm more interested in getting the hell out of here." Ichigo glanced down at the notebook in Rukia's lap. "So, how are we supposed to open that seal thing?"

"The book mentioned four keys," Rukia's eyes lazily drifted open and she began leafing through the pages, pulling out the map she had tucked in there earlier and delicately unfolding it. "One of them was in the warehouse with the book. I'm assuming the other three," she indicated the three black marks on the map, "are here."

"Of course they couldn't all be in one place." Ichigo grumbled.

"You forget they didn't _want _anyone to leave. Not without permission, at least, otherwise they wouldn't have bothered with making keys." Rukia turned her attention to the buildings marked in red. "I thought since these buildings were marked, the seal would be here but there isn't any path out from here." Both Shinigami did a quick scan of the room in case there was something they had missed, but the only thing of note that went previously unnoticed was the wooden plaque on the wall with four circular indentations set into it.

"Guess we came to the wrong place," Ichigo sighed. "Looks like the keys are supposed to go here and the exit's..."

Rukia's back went ramrod straight, her eyes widening. "Up the steps! She was running up the steps to get out!" She exclaimed in a hushed tone.

Ichigo scratched at the back of his head, eyebrows furrowing together. "You lost me."

"Earlier in the forest I saw Hisana-neesama running up the steps. She was trying to escape the village." She explained, tracing her finger over the path on the map that – sure enough – led to the other marked building. "This must be where the barrier can be breached."

"If that's the case we might not even need the keys," Ichigo pointed out. "If there's a weak spot, you might be able to break though it with your kidou, right?"

Rukia nodded, "It's a possibility. I can try after we get some rest." She unzipped her bag, frowned slightly, and pulled out the antique camera Ichigo had stuffed into it earlier. It looked familiar. "What is this?"

Ichigo stretched and yawned while answering, "Eh, some kind of demon-slaying camera. I'll explain later."

Rukia turned it over in her hands a few times with an inquisitive expression on her face before setting the device aside. She began tugging out the rest of the contents of her bag and laying them out neatly on the ground. There was a small assortment of food – most of it junk food and juice boxes – grouped together in one pile, first aid supplies in another and, lastly, a tightly rolled wad of cloth that Rukia shook out into two blankets. The first she gingerly draped over the sleeping twins and the second she pitched at Ichigo's head.

He caught the blanket with his face and, after a bit of flailing, pried it off. "Oh _hell_ no." Ichigo chucked it back at her with a mild glare.

"I'm _trying_ to be chivalrous," she sniffed, the air of Kuchiki nobility settling around her easily. "A gigai is much more durable than your frail, human body." The blanket was passed back to him, this time with less force.

Ichigo scowled, balling the cloth up in preparation to throw it again. "If you're trying to be _so_ chivalrous, then why did you give me the one with the damn bunnies all over it?" He hissed, paused for a moment, eyes narrowing further. "And who are you calling frail?!"

"I hadn't even noticed," Rukia retorted, her expression all too innocent to be believed. She retook her seat against the wall, trying to organize her limbs into a comfortable sleeping position.

"Whatever. I don't want it." Her vision went dark when the blanket was dumped over her head and Rukia sighed in exasperation.

Pulling the offending cloth off, she thrust it out towards Ichigo again. "Ichigo, just take it." Her tone lost its teasing edge, filled only with exhaustion and mild annoyance. She didn't want to argue anymore. It had been nice, for a moment, to restore that small piece of normalcy and pretend they weren't trapped in a God-forsaken village with homicidal demons, but the illusion could only work for so long. Settling herself against the wall after Ichigo finally took the blanket from her, Rukia let her eyes slip shut – scowling when she felt the covers fall over her.

"You can't complain about this, right?" She opened her eyes to find the rabbit print blanket spread out over both of them and Ichigo concentrating very hard on the opposite wall.

"Shut up," she replied, leaning her head against the wall and drifting off to sleep.

_It was dark and cold and Sae had felt a thrill of fear dance up her spine more than once that night. They'd nearly been caught wandering outside so many times it was a sheer miracle they had made it to the shrine where Itsuki waited for them. She and Yae were motioned over to a patch of trees by the white haired boy barely seconds before a group of frantic villagers passed, searching desperately for the missing twins. Sae could only imagine her father's worry and felt suddenly ashamed._

_"Yae, I don't think we should do this..." She whispered, clinging to her twin's arm and casting her gaze to her feet._

_Yae laid her hand over Sae's and gave her a strong, reassuring smile. "It's alright, I'm here with you." Sae met her sister's unwavering gaze, feeling her shaken nerves grow calm, and found herself able to return the gesture. As long as Yae was by her side everything would turn out all right in the end._

_Light danced through the trees and the twin girls ducked into the bushes while Itsuki hid himself behind a tree. After several seconds had passed, Itsuki peeked around the edge of his hiding spot. It would be too risky to stay there much longer. As it was, they had an extremely slim chance of sneaking past the searching villagers unnoticed unless..._

_Itsuki turned to Yae and Sae, affording himself one last glance at the two girls he had grown up with, laughed with, cried with, became friends with. "You two go on by yourselves."_

_Sae's grip tightened on her sister's arm, her previous courage melting away in an instant. "But Itsuki..." She pleaded, stepping forward. Yae held her sister back firmly, shaking her head despite the forlorn expression on her face._

_"Go, and don't look back."_

_Yae and Sae both turned to face each other, equally nervous and unsure but – for her sister's sake – Yae managed a firm nod and gingerly tugged Sae into a run. Despite his words, both girls spared a backwards glance to their childhood friend before setting their sights firmly on the path ahead. It was dark and unfamiliar but Sae was certain that Yae was strong enough to get them through this. Maybe _too_ strong, as she quickly realized her older sister was getting further and further ahead._

_"Yae, wait!" She called, desperately pushing her weak legs to go faster. She hadn't been born strong, not like Yae. "Don't leave me behind!"_

_But Yae didn't slow down in the least, barely casting a glance over her shoulder to shout, "Hurry!" The pain shooting through Sae's heart was palpable. Yae promised they would always be together but already – only a few steps out of the village – she was getting further away. Sae didn't want this; she didn't want to be left behind by the only person she had left in the world. Outside of the village it became a terrifying possibility, but if she were to stay...Yae would not leave without her. They would become butterflies and rise to Heaven together._

_A shriek echoed through the night as Sae slipped off the path and tumbled into the ravine._

_Please…  
Come back now…  
Don't leave me alone…  
It's dark here…  
I don't want to be alone... _

_Yae…_

Sae Kurosawa

A/N: Poor Hisana and Rukia, I'm so mean to them...actually, I'm quite mean to all the characters. Many, many, MANY thanks to all the reviewers/watchers/favers out there that always manage to brighten my day. Extra special thanks to rukia-neesan for so many wonderful reviews and BrokenMuse for the extra long, thought-provoking review (you gave me a few evil, EVIL ideas). And now, some answers to some questions.

Why doesn't the camera have unlimited film like in the game? Originally, the camera WAS going to have an infinite amount of 'ammo' but after some thought I decided against it. Making the characters as helpless as possible is what I was aiming to do (along with making them each suffer in some way). From this point on, though, the camera ain't going to be running out of film unless it suits my evil purposes later on.

Shouldn't Yuzu and Karin's roles be reversed? Yes they should, both because Karin is (I'm assuming) the older twin and also the more spiritually sensitive. However, Yuzu is also the 'weaker' of the twins just like Mayu and Sae and Mutsuki so....Artistic License? I don't know if Kubo officially wrote anywhere which girl was the older twin, but....well....we can just pretend, right?

Rukia's magical bag? Hasn't actually been asked yet, but I figured I would explain beforehand. You see, Rukia's bag is a gift from Urahara Shouten for being their most valued customer. Since Urahara made it himself, this particular bag has the ability to go unmentioned for several pages at a time and magically disappear or reappear at the convenience of the author. It can also switch from character to character without any transition involved whatsoever and is 100% machine washable. It's quite fun.


	9. Chapter Nine

Obligatory Author's Note: For anyone who hasn't seen it, I've posted a story called 'The Village: Clear Data' which is essentially going to be a series of (hopefully humorous) omakes based on this story. Just look for it under my profile if you're interested. As always, many thanks for all the lovely reviews.

**The Village**

**Chapter Nine**

"_According to the records, this house used to belong to the powerful Tsuchihara family. In the village, the Osaka, Kiryu, and Tachibana families were also influential. Each house had its own crest, and held power in the village. As a group they were also in charge of a special ritual. Each was a branch of the Kurosawa family, who administered to the ceremony."_

_Masumi Makimura_

Ichigo lazily drifted into consciousness, feeling hardly any less miserable then when he first fell asleep. His back was sore, his neck stiff, and his pride wounded by a flock of white cartoon bunnies that stared up at him mockingly from the powder blue blanket draped over him. Worst of all, it felt like he'd been asleep for a grand total of five seconds and in spite of how tired he felt he was also too restless to even make an attempt at going back to sleep. Probably, it was a combination of the crappy sleeping arrangements and the strange dreams he had about the white haired boy they found hanging from his neck in the warehouse.

Pushing those thoughts aside, Ichigo moved to stretch out the kinks in his neck and shoulders when he took notice of the slight weight leaning against his shoulder. He looked down and frowned slightly while mentally adding to his list of woes: Rukia had drooled on his shirt. He didn't even know the Kuchiki noble was capable of something as 'lowly' as drooling. He was fully prepared to poke her awake and admonish her for the many woes she had set upon him (most of them not even her fault) but he stopped short.

Rukia _had _pushed herself an awful lot the day before – if a day had even passed yet – and the fact that he'd actually woken up _before_ her was a testament to how drained she must have been. On top of that, she was going to attempt to break through a barrier that'd held up for several decades and eluded Soul Society's detection for just as long, and it wasn't as though the horde of demons trying to catch them would conveniently give up. Ichigo ultimately decided not to disturb the sleeping Shinigami, though he extracted a small bit of revenge by wiping the spit off his sleeve with her beloved blanket.

"Ichigo?" He might have jumped at the abruptly broken silence if he had more energy. He turned his gaze to the opposite wall where his younger sisters were resting, finding Karin staring back at him with half-lidded eyes. She looked about as exhausted as he felt. "I'm hungry," she muttered, frowning and clutching her stomach when it growled in protest.

Ichigo nudged aside the blanket with his foot, pointing the toe of his shoe at the stack of snacks Rukia had left on the ground the night before. "It's right there. Hand me some too, will ya'? I'm kind of stuck here." Karin's bleary gaze drifted over to Rukia as if noticing her for the first time.

"I'm in the same situation," she grumbled, gesturing towards her sleeping twin.

"You're closer."

"What do you want me to do, kick it?"

"You play soccer, don't you?" A box of pocky smacked him squarely in the nose before it plopped down into his lap. "Thanks," he remarked dryly.

Karin didn't respond, already nudging at another box with her foot in an attempt to drag it closer. In the end, Ichigo ended up tossing her his box while she kicked hers over to him and they spent the next few minutes eating in silence. The pocky, unfortunately, wasn't very filling but it made their hunger ebb, and both siblings felt a little more awake after getting some food in their stomaches.

"So how are we getting out of here?" Karin asked just above a whisper. She was feeling stronger – emotionally, at least – than the day before.

"There's supposed to be a passageway out of here. Rukia's going to try to get us through the barrier. If she can't, it looks like we're going to have to search the place for the keys to open it." Karin nodded slowly in understanding. "Either way, I want you to stay here until we're sure we can get out." She froze and her eyes snapped up to meet her brother's defiantly.

"But I can help you!" Karin protested quietly. "We'll find them faster if-"  
"Karin," Ichigo's stern voice and the weary look in his eyes made her stop. "We can't bring Yuzu with us, and we can't leave her alone either. You know – probably better than I do – that something is wrong with her. I need you to look after her."

Karin clenched her hands into fists in her lap and averted her gaze. It was true. It had been only a night, yet she'd already forgotten how peculiar her twin had been acting. With no one to stop her, Yuzu might run off by herself again. After failing spectacularly to do anything useful yesterday, she'd really hoped to pull herself together and do something meaningful. A few seconds passed before she reluctantly nodded and drew her knees up to her chest.

Ichigo relaxed against the interior of the tree – not even realizing he had tensed up in the first place – and accidentally jostled Rukia's head with his shoulder. She snapped awake, sitting ramrod straight for a moment, and announced, "I wasn't sleeping, Captain!" The shinigami blinked several times at the unfamiliar surroundings until her mind fully woke up and she remembered where she was. Immediately afterwards, she turned to look at Ichigo, who really couldn't help but smirk.

"And what is so funny?" She demanded, elbowing him half-heartedly before staggering to her feet while tossing a glare at him. Ichigo shrugged noncommittally in response, no energy to spare for his usual ribbing.

Rukia's expression softened into a frown, though it had nothing to do with her companion. The dreams from last night flew back to her with abrupt clarity, and all of them about her sister's life here in the village – things that Rukia couldn't possibly know or construct with her imagination alone. It seemed the 'imprint' left behind by those who died went further than simply seeing their after-images wandering the streets. More troubling was that her reiatsu reserves still felt significantly lower than they should after a full night of rest even if her body still felt fatigued. Most likely, all the demon reiatsu clogging up the air made it difficult for her body to absorb any 'clean' reiatsu for itself.

In any case, they needed to leave as soon as was possible.

"We should get going," Rukia announced, swiping a juice box from their pile of snacks and heading for the door.

Ichigo trailed after her, snatching up the antique camera and notebook as he passed, and paused at the entrance to look back at his sisters. "We'll be back once we can get the barrier open. If Yuzu wakes up before then, let her know where we are." Karin rolled her eyes.

"Duh," she drawled, "I'm not _stupid_." The corner of Ichigo's lip twitched upwards and he stepped outside into the stale, night air, making sure the door was firmly shut behind him.

"It looks like you could be right," Rukia remarked as they set out down the path, heading for the stone steps. "It's still night time, but the moon has moved. See?" It had moved – and in the completely wrong direction at that. "I'm willing to bet we didn't sleep for 20 hours, either. It must be the same night repeating over and over."

Ichigo shrugged in response. He really couldn't care less about any details that didn't get him closer to finding the way out. "I'm just glad the 'welcoming committee' isn't here. I figured we'd have to pummel the crap out of every demon in this village just to get up the damn hill."

"It's not really us they're after. I'm sure we'll have plenty to deal with when we bring Yuzu and Karin through here." Ichigo scowled slightly as the two Shinigami reached a fork in the path and began ascending the stone steps.

"That's right," Ichigo grumbled to himself, glancing down at the camera in his hands. It brought back the memories of the vision he'd experienced after he'd first come across it – a girl running through the village, nothing but images of another girl so similar in appearance and age she couldn't be anything but her twin flooding her mind with worry. Trying not to think about what happened to her he distracted himself with figuring out how to load the film in the camera.

Rukia glanced over at him curiously. "You never did explain what that thing is," she commented.

"Hell, I don't know much about it either," Ichigo responded without glancing up, scowling as he fumbled with the film. "All I know is it's a camera that beats the shit out of demons."

Rukia fell silent, staring a few seconds longer at the antique device and abruptly realized why it looked so familiar. It had been the same camera she'd seen back on Misono Hill when she and Ichigo had first entered the village – the camera the man had used on the peculiar stone monument when countless ghostly arms had leapt forward to attack him. How Ichigo had come across it and figured out its capabilities she didn't know, but it was a good thing he did; they needed all the help they could get.

They were approaching the top of the stairs now and Rukia found herself averting her gaze from the last few steps they took up the hill. There wasn't much point to it; the dim light of the moon wouldn't be enough to tell whether or not there was still a brownish red stain that had been splattered across the stones over a hundred years ago and it shouldn't have really mattered. Even so, all she could think of was the dream she'd had last night of Hisana's spirit standing at the top of the steps while clutching a crying child to her chest and sobbing apologies, her broken chain of fate slowly dwindling.

_I'm so sorry, Rukia. I couldn't protect you, or mom, or dad, or anyone. I couldn't...I can't save anyone... I don't deserve to be your sister. I don't deserve to take care of you..._

"I think I've seen this place before." Ichigo paused at the top of the steps, scrutinizing his surroundings with narrowed eyes. Stone lanterns lined the overgrown path leading up to a deteriorated shrine, the small clearing surrounded by a thick wall of foliage.

_ He was leading the twin girls here, darting from tree to tree, veins surging with adrenaline as torch wielding villagers passed by in a panic. If everything went well, the girls would be long gone before anyone realized why they were having trouble finding the two sisters that were supposed to be preparing themselves for the ceremony._

Ichigo shook his head as the dream (memory?) from the previous night surfaced unbidden and he scowled.

"Didn't you come up this way earlier?" Rukia asked, eyebrows scrunching in confusion.

"Not this far." He didn't feel like entertaining the idea that the spirits in this place were actually starting to creep into his head. It was too unsettling. "Never mind, it's nothing. Let's keep going." Both Shinigami moved forward, heading into the shrine without another word passed between them. They both knew, without knowing how, that the seal they were looking to break was inside the building in spite of the barrier extending several meters (by Rukia's reckoning) out behind the shrine.

Inside of the shrine looked less stable than even the outside. Large chunks of the rafters were strewn about, the large beams impaling the floor and walls in some places, and part of the roof had caved in. The lattice walls on either side of the entrance were rotting and shattered in places, attributing to the heavy stench of damp decay that permeated the air. The only thing in the place that seemed untouched by time was the modest altar nestled against another lattice wall that had a gaping hole punched in the right side. Hisana's memories told her younger sister the exit was behind that wall.

Rukia ducked through the damaged lattice first, Ichigo close behind, and found a door directly behind the altar plastered with ofuda scrolls. "This must be it." She placed her palm against the door, narrowing her eyes in concentration.

So far it looked promising. Unlike the barrier surrounding the village, the seal on the door wasn't pushing her reiatsu aside or preventing her from approaching. In fact it wasn't difficult in the least to feed her kidou into the door, though trying to manipulate it afterwards was taxing. Rukia considered herself above average when it came to kidou but the sort of thing she was attempting required something beyond her skill. She'd hoped that after prodding the barrier structure for a while and gaining an understanding of it would reveal a way to dismantle it without a near-miraculous 'power-up' on her part, but barely a minute into the process she found her arm going limp. It wasn't until then that she realized what was happening.

"Damn," she growled, snatching her arm back a full sixty seconds too late. "It's no good. This isn't the barrier's weak spot, it's the power source. Whoever put this thing in place managed to make it self-sustaining."

"What? I thought you said-"

"The rest of the barrier was built to reject everything inwards – reiatsu, spirits, people, everything. This one spot, however, is designed to absorb reiatsu."

Ichigo scowled in understanding, "Which it uses to power the rest of the barrier. And with all these demons running around it's not going to run out of reiatsu to suck up anytime soon."

"And I just gave it a good chunk of mine," Rukia growled, leaning her forehead against the wall. Her head was beginning to feel light with exhaustion while the rest of her felt immensely frustrated. A warm hand dropped onto her shoulder.

"C'mon, we'll head back to the tree."

"We have to look for the keys. We don't have any other options."

"_You_ aren't doing anything, looking like you're about to fall over." Ichigo's voice rose, dark eyes narrowing. "Get some rest first, you aren't going to be able to do anything like this."

Rukia straightened, wobbled slightly, and gave him a hard look. "It won't do any good. Don't you understand? It's not only the demons this thing has been feeding off! It's _us_!" Ichigo's eyes widened, a barely audible gasp escaping his lips. "You felt the same when you woke up, right? Drained, like you hadn't slept at all. This is the reason. We can't break the barrier because we're inadvertently sustaining it, along with who knows how many demons."

"Well...shit." It was all Ichigo could think to say in response, but it summed up the situation pretty neatly. "Wait. Doesn't that mean if we get rid of all the demons, it'll get weaker?"

"_We'd _still be fueling it, but it'd probably be a lot easier to manipulate if it's mostly made up of our reiatsu. There's also the chance Soul Society would be able to locate us once they realize we're missing."

"If they even notice that much," Ichigo grumbled under his breath.

"But," Rukia continued, ignoring his comment, "we have no idea how many demons are here. There could be thousands more for all we know, and neither of us is in any condition to take that kind of risk. It's probably faster and safer to just find the keys that break this seal."

"Great," his scowl deepened as he ducked back under the broken lattice. "And if we still can't get out, then what?"

Rukia exhaled heavily, following Ichigo out of the shrine. "I don't know." All they had left after this plan was to actually attempt to get rid of every last demon – which meant trying to teach Ichigo kidou. As amazing as his growth as a Shinigami had proven to be, Rukia did not have high hopes for the boy in that particular area. She found herself frowning, once again dismaying at being trapped in a gigai and pondered the consequences of ripping the faux body apart to free herself. At best, she'd be a Shinigami again and probably be able to take out the barrier with Sode no Shirayuki. At worst, she'd die a horribly painful and bloody death for absolutely no reason.

Maybe it would work as a last resort, but it was (much, MUCH) better to exhaust their other scant options first. For now though...

"Where's the first key?"

Ichigo flipped open the notebook and unfolded the map, spreading it out over the open book. After several seconds of silently scanning and squinting at the faded parchment and checking out their surroundings, he answered. "Two of the houses we passed on the way here – and they look like the biggest in the village _of course_ – each have one. There's another in the smaller house at the base of the hill where we first came in."

Rukia leaned over his arm to see the map for herself when he pointed to the houses. "That one should be the easiest to search," she indicated the smaller building marked 'Osaka'.

"Yeah," Ichigo folded the map up and tucked it back into the journal. "And finding that one might give us a clue where they'd keep the keys at in the other houses."

The Shinigami duo paused at the foot of the shrine steps, Ichigo staring down the path that led to the old, hollowed out tree where his sisters were waiting and he frowned. He hadn't felt the least bit anxious about leaving them behind at first; it seemed to be a place the demons couldn't enter, because they certainly would have last night while they were all sleeping and vulnerable. Now, however, a strange hollowness was settling in the pit of his stomach and uneasiness was creeping up his spine. Maybe he was only being paranoid or overprotective, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he needed to check on his siblings.

His thoughts must have been plainly written across his face. "Do you want to stay with them while I look for the keys?" Rukia questioned, but Ichigo shook his head. Truthfully he'd prefer to leave the drained Shinigami with Yuzu and Karin while he went out to search by himself, except Rukia was about as likely to stay behind as he was... But he had to at least try.

"What about you?" He suggested, turning to fix Rukia with a stern look. He saw her eyes start to narrow and her mouth opened and, knowing what she was about to say, he cut her off. "You're exhausted, Rukia, and yeah, maybe resting won't actually help but what do you think pushing yourself like this is gonna do?" Her mouth snapped shut, settling into a scowl and he sighed. "Look, I don't need to use kidou to defend myself," Ichigo waved the camera in his hand for emphasis, "and I'd feel a lot better knowing you were with my sisters."

"Don't insult me," Rukia snapped.

"Rukia-"

"I know my own limits, I _know_ how hard I can push myself, and _you_ know as well as I do that Yuzu and Karin are in the safest place they could possibly be – considering the circumstances."

Ichigo frowned. "You're the one who brought it up in the first place. So it's fine if _you're_ the one running off by yourself, but not me?"

"Because you're worried to the point of distraction! Wanting to protect your friends and family is one thing, Ichigo, but you never trust anyone to take care of themselves and it's insulting! Not only that, but it _will_ eventually destroy you if you keep heaping all the blame on yourself every time someone around you gets hurt!"

Rukia wasn't sure how she'd segued into this; it was no longer their current problem she was lecturing him for, at least not exclusively. "You can't hold yourself responsible for so many people because that sort of weight will drag you down until it crushes you completely. You have to let me – your friends, your family – help you manage that sort of burden. We can help."

Ichigo was silent for a long time, mouth set in a firm line, staring off down the path to the old tree. Protests welled up within him and died in his throat because she'd basically taken the lecture he'd given her back in Soul Society (via Renji) and thrown it back in his face. There wasn't much he could say without contradicting himself. "Fine," his voice came out strained, and his eyes were hardened when he finally met Rukia's stern gaze. "But this means you actually have to take care of yourself."

Rukia's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. "Huh?"

"Don't give me that 'huh?' and try to act all innocent and play dumb!" He pointed an accusing finger at her. "Someone," he jabbed his thumb into his chest, "had to protect you and take care of you because you won't take care of yourself! Half the time you act like you're _trying_ to get yourself killed - hell the first day we met you practically jumped right down that damn hollow's throat!"

"I did no such-"

"And all that crap with your execution – and telling _me_ to run while that damn Espada _punches a hole in you!_" Ichigo leaned down so he could glare straight into her eyes. "I'm not supposed to worry about a friend who acts like that?" He asked quietly, frowning when she crossed her arms over her chest and stubbornly averted her eyes. Ichigo straightened with a heavy sigh, absently scratching at the back of his head before letting his arms drop back down to his sides. "Maybe I am overprotective. That's probably true but I can't..." His hands clenched into his fists. "I'm not going to lose anyone else. Not when I could save them."

Rukia fixed her gaze on him again, her fingertips tapping against her arm while she mulled over his words. She couldn't very well come out and tell him that there were several occasions in which she _had_ been purposefully reckless, that she _had_ wanted to get herself killed. Even now, so many years later, she felt the burden of killing Kaien weigh down on her shoulders, and while she had told herself long ago her death was how she planned to atone for his murder she was only kidding herself. Mostly she had just wanted to escape from the overbearing guilt.

Instead, she deadpanned. "You missed the entire point of what I was saying, didn't you?"

Ichigo's eyebrows quirked upwards in confusion. "Eh?"

"Nevermind," Rukia shook her head with a long-suffering sigh. "Right now we have other things to do, right?"

"I guess," Ichigo conceded, eyeing her suspiciously. "Rukia..."

"As long as you don't do anything stupid, I won't do anything reckless," Rukia interrupted, waving her hand dismissively as she brushed past him to start down the path into the village proper. "I'm not going to get myself killed." She hadn't meant for that to slip out - it was a stupid pseudo promise to make and could clue Ichigo in to the fact that she was purposefully reckless at times – but it was out there and she couldn't very well take it back.

Ichigo trailed after her. "I'm holding you to that." Then, a few seconds later, "Stupid and reckless are the same thing, idiot."

"Shut up."

_Sae had always been terrified of the day that she would have to tread those steep, stone steps and look upon the pitch black abyss that was said to strike you blind and drive you mad if you even glimpsed its depths. Recently, even the mourners whose eyes had been sown shut had gone insane from being in the presence of the abyss and leapt to their deaths. Yae had promised her that she would never have to see this place because they were going to run away. Sae took comfort in knowing that even if they didn't escape, Yae would be at her side while she descended into the belly of the cavern._

_ Now she was here alone, even surrounded by veiled priests she had never felt so isolated. Yae hadn't come back for her. Sae was going to die alone, life ripped from her by a cold, unfeeling noose instead of her sister's warm hands. She hesitated, hoping that any moment now she would hear Yae's voice echoing down into the tunnel, to see her stumbling in her rush to be back at her twin's side, to feel her embrace as she sobbed apology after apology for being late. Sae would forgive her. She would forgive her anything. She'd wait as long as it took._

_ A veiled priest nudged her roughly and she stumbled, swallowing back her tears. Yae wasn't coming, was she?_

_ Sae was led to the Shinto gate near the edge of the abyss, fear keeping her eyes focused stead-fast on the opposite wall of the immense cavern instead of the bottomless pit before her. A rope was thrown over the beam and the noose at the end fastened around her neck by her own hands. She closed her eyes, swallowing thickly, before the rope was tightened and she was hoisted into the air by her neck._

_ "I'll wait... forever."_

_ It took a long time for her to die. Sae tried not to struggle, tried to pretend that Yae was with her, that it was her hands wrapped around her neck. It didn't work. All she could think about was how much she wanted Yae to come back. She wanted her sister's face to be the last thing she saw. She wanted Yae to see her become a butterfly. She wanted to become a part of her twin and to never be separated again. She didn't want to die. But she did._

_ And when she felt herself falling, tossed over the edge into the endless depths of the abyss, it wasn't terror or grief that gripped Sae. She was still falling, she hadn't become a butterfly, she wouldn't ascend to Heaven, she wouldn't be able to wait for Yae, and she couldn't even save her village. Anger, bubbling deep in the pit of her stomach until it overflowed and consumed her, was all that was left in her. Anger at herself for her failure, at her sister for breaking the promise they shared, and anger at the people who selfishly killed – and would continue to do so long after she was gone – so they could continue their way of life._

_ Sae refused to let it end like this._

_ As if fueled by her anger the countless spirits of Hell surged upwards from the abyss, all of them furious and determined to reach the surface but none nearly so much as Sae. She clawed and scrabbled to the top of the heap with her newfound strength and was the first to climb out of the pit and back into the light. She was the first thing the veiled priests saw before the abyss spilled over and unleashed Hell on the unsuspecting villagers._

_ The veiled priests that would not allow her to wait for Yae, the family that had brought her into this terrible world, the Tachibana's who allowed Itsuki to be locked away, everyone in the village who continued to demand this sacrifice even while they had to know it was wrong - she would make them all pay._

Yuzu jerked awake, eyes snapping open to their full width and her lungs desperately gasping for air. Karin had started at the abrupt action but tightened her arm around her sister's shoulder when she saw the unbridled panic marring Yuzu's face. The elder twin didn't react to her touch – if she even noticed it at all – and clawed at the blanket draped over her as though she were suffocating. Her heavy gasps eased off gradually as Karin gingerly rubbed her back but her eyes remained wide, unfocused, and glazed over. A tremor racked her body once, then twice, then grew into a terrible shaking.

Karin's heart began hammering fiercely against her chest, the air catching in her lungs as she choked out Yuzu's name. She watched, helpless, as her sister wrapped her arms around herself, her shoulders jerking up and down in silent sobs. A muffled squeak escaped Yuzu's throat and Karin could do nothing but pull the girl into an embrace and try to shoulder some of her fear. Her eyes narrowed, shivers ghosting up her spine when the tiniest of giggles echoed sharply in her ear, eerily similar to those of the woman in the bloodstained kimono.

Pulling back, Karin was met with her sister's tear-stained, grinning face. Yuzu burst out into giggles, sucking in air so sharply between each laugh Karin could hear the oxygen catching in her throat as it rushed down into her lungs. Salty water ran from her eyes, tracing her jawline and dripping down her chin even while she braced her arms against her stomach that shook with uncontainable mirth and agony that made her red in the face. She was hysterical and Karin's chest tightened, terrified at what had become of her sister, and she did the only thing she could think of.

Karin's hand snapped sharply across Yuzu's face, the older of the twins suddenly falling silent at the contact. For several seconds she remained unmoving and quiet before her hand slowly touched the red mark blooming across her cheek. "Karin-chan..." she whimpered, turning to stare mournfully into her sister's eyes.

"I'm sorry, Yuzu. But..."

"I don't want to die," Yuzu cried out, latching onto Karin and crying against her shoulder. "I don't want to be alone! Please stay with me, Yae!" Karin bit her lip and swallowed the lump rising in her throat before gently patting her twin's back and willing Ichigo to hurry.

It didn't take long to reach the Osaka house. The village wasn't exactly big and the demons had decided to give them a reprieve; probably because Rukia had basically nuked them the previous night and they needed time to regroup. At least, that was what she and Ichigo _hoped_ was the reason for their absence. The only alternatives were that the spirits were either laying in wait to ambush the Shinigami duo, or they were hard at work finding a way to get at Yuzu and Karin. Ichigo hoped it was the former.

"This is it," he announced, double-checking their location on the map before approaching the door. Unlike his earlier attempt when the two Shinigami had first entered the village, the entrance to the Osaka house offered no resistance and they cautiously stepped inside.

After passing through the foyer, they were startled into battle stances when the sliding door leading to the room beside the entrance slammed open with an unnaturally loud 'bang'. A group of pale white, giggling children darted out across the room, a couple running up the stairs, another straight through the wall in front of him, and another scurrying down the corridor across from the apprehensive Shinigami.

They all vanished from sight, each of them calling out several seconds later. "Ready!"

Ichigo and Rukia relaxed, glancing at each other.

"They're hiding... they probably don't even know they're dead."

"Poor kids," Ichigo muttered sympathetically. "Well, at least that's a few less ghosts for us to worry about."

"Demons."

"Whatever." His eyes narrowed. "Wait, demons? Kids that young can get sent to Hell?"

Rukia shrugged. "It's very rare and unusual, but yes. Those children didn't have chains of fate so they couldn't have been regular spirits."

Ichigo frowned, his eyebrows furrowing together. "Doesn't it take something like murder to earn a trip to Hell when you die? I mean, out of all the Hollows I've fought I've only seen one taken to Hell and that was that Shrieker bastard."

Nodding, Rukia replied, "It is strange, but that's something to think about later."

Ichigo was right to find it odd that children so young could become demons. It wasn't impossible of course, but for there to be so many (and all in one place) was beyond unlikely. So much about this place left Rukia with more and more questions. Who had erected the complex barrier surrounding said village? Who had created the camera Ichigo had come across, and why?How had so many demons managed to escaped from Hell, and why were they all people from the same village? For that matter, what did they want with Yuzu and Karin? What ceremony did the demons intend to use them for and what did they hope to accomplish? Why were the villagers themselves carrying out the ceremony before they'd died and became demons?

Why did Hisana have to die?

Rukia swallowed a lump in her throat, squashing down the wave of emotion before it had a chance to sweep over her. "I guess we might as well start here."

"Yeah," Ichigo rubbed at the back of his neck, scanning the room and sighing heavily. It may not have been a large house, but what they were looking for wasn't exactly big.

It didn't take very long to search through the first room and come up empty handed. There weren't a whole lot of places that the key could have been stored or hidden, in spite of being a fairly large area. They moved onto the next room, the one they'd seen beyond the lattice in the foyer, and began perusing through the kimono boxes and chest of drawers they found inside. Upon opening one, the pale moonlight streaming in through the window glinted off something shiny that was half buried in a drawer with scrolls haphazardly dumped inside and Rukia carefully dug it out. It wasn't a pinwheel key, but something of use nonetheless.

The clear glass container she'd retrieved from the drawer was nearly identical to the one she'd found back in the graveyard and filled with, most likely, the same liquid. It brought up another question the Shinigami filed away for later: Who in this village had the ability and need to create a liquid that could replenish spent reiatsu?

"Here," Rukia turned to Ichigo, passing the container over to him. "Drink some."

"What is this?" Ichigo turned the glass bottle over in his hands, scrutinizing the clear liquid inside.

"Some kind of water, probably," Rukia responded, shrugging indifferently.

"_Probably? _You just go around drinking random things?"

"I found some yesterday. It seems to be made for restoring reiatsu."

At his skeptical look Rukia huffed impatiently, snatched the bottle from his hands, and sipped half of the contents. She stood motionless for several seconds, feeling the familiar rush of energy flow through her gigai that took the edge off her fatigue. "See? It's harmless," she announced before stuffing it back into his hands. Ichigo stared down at the half-empty bottle then glanced at Rukia, then back down at the bottle before swallowing thickly.

"_Now_ what's your problem?"

"I-It's got your nasty spit all over it now!" Ichigo spluttered, trying to hand it back to Rukia. "Why don't you take the rest? You're the one throwing kidou around anyway."

"I didn't realize you were so sensitive," she deadpanned, crossing her arms over her chest. "Don't be a baby, Ichigo, just drink it."

The issue was dropped when a resounding thud echoed through the room and both Shinigami jumped to attention. On the far side of the room, one of the lids to a kimono box had fallen open and childish giggles echoed from its depths. Rukia and Ichigo both stepped forward cautiously, glass bottle left forgotten where the latter had dropped it on the floor, and moved to stand in front of the box and peered inside, expecting to find another one of the children's spirits.

It was empty. Except for the multicolored pinwheel key laying on the bottom. Before either Shinigami even moved to take it, something latched onto Ichigo's leg and sent pinpricks of icy cold numbness shooting through the appendage. He tried to move away, already reaching down to shove the attacker away and suddenly going still when he saw it was a tiny girl with dark hair tied up into pigtails hugging his leg.

"Gotcha!" She giggled, tightening her grip when Ichigo attempted to pull away and nearly tripping him. Rukia moved to pull the girl away when two other children appeared at her sides and latched onto her arms, bouncing up and down and squealing happily even while her arms began to go numb with cold. "Found you, found you! Let's play another game!"

"Demon Tag!" The other children chanted, nearly knocking Rukia off her feet with their insistent tugging. Both she and Ichigo attempted to gently wrest themselves from the children's grasp, only for them to cling even tighter to the point where their grips became painful

"I'll be the Oni!" The girl exclaimed. the cheerful smile on her face warping into something much more malicious.

Ichigo mentally reminded himself she was a demon before hesitantly lifting the camera and pressing the shutter button. She flew backwards with a horrendous scream that made the other two children fall silent, dropping to the floor as though she'd been kicked. When she looked back up at the Shinigami, the grin had dropped from her face and the cheerfulness had gone out of her eyes, replaced with a stern frown and dark glare.

The two children clinging to Rukia immediately released her arms and backed away with the same visage of rage painted over their faces. Rather than attack, all three scampered off through the walls though an oppressive chill lingered in the air. When several seconds passed and nothing else happened, both Shinigami allowed themselves to relax and turned back to take the pinwheel key from the box...

Only to find a fourth child snatching it up, pausing to grin wickedly at them, before he too passed through the wall with the key clutched in his pale hands.

_I don't want to be alone... _

_together... _

_so... so... _

_Yae... _

_Please... _

_Kill me... _

Sae Kurosawa

A/N: Those durn kids, anyway! At least it wasn't the woman in the box D:

More special thanks to rukia-neesan for confirming that Yuzu _was_ born first (and for calling me awesome :) ). Mwahaha, my story is canon! Also, anyone that reviews, favs, or watches this story is awesome by default, so if you haven't yet secured your awesomeness there's no time like the present.

Well, this chapter took the better part of way too long. It's Ichigo and Rukia's fault, really. They just HAD to go and have that discussion that I HAD to get just right... I'm still not sure I'm 100 percent satisfied with the way it turned out, but I'm also not sure I'll EVER be completely happy with that part. To add to the pile of excuses, I recently moved pretty much across the country and got my very first sinus infection! Yay!


	10. Chapter Ten

Obligatory Author's Note: Do you know what this means? This story is now 100 pages long! *Throws confetti* Took me long enough, eh? By the way, make sure to read the second half of the last chapter if you haven't already. I'm pretty sure no notifications went out when I reuploaded the complete version of chapter nine. Many thanks for the reviews and favs! I definitely wouldn't have made it this far without them.

**The Village**

**Chapter Ten**

_ "Twins play an important part in the ritual. In recent years, the government issued a decree that the first twin to come out is the eldest. Each region used to have its own rules until that decree was made. When I asked the Ceremony Master about the village's rules, he grinned and said that tradition is tradition. This village still practices the old way. The twin that is born second is considered the elder."_

_Seijiro Makabe_

Yuzu's sobbing hadn't subsided for several minutes, interjected with brief bouts of incoherent babble. As time inched by with Karin trapped in tense silence while she held her distraught sister, her crying eventually began to ease off until only a few sniffles and a couple of shuddering breaths remained. Karin gently pulled away from her older twin, keeping a steady grip on her shoulders, and looked her in the eyes. She'd wanted to say or do something that might offer her even a small bit of comfort or help her forget whatever nightmared she'd had that drove her into hysterics in the first place.

Instead, Karin found herself shoving her sister to the ground and backpedaling when she came face to face with a pair of dark brown eyes overshadowed by black bangs. She blinked and the image was gone leaving only Yuzu sprawled out on the ground and Karin backed against the far wall, heart hammering fiercely against her chest. She opened her mouth, apologies, guilt, and horror all tangling in her throat and leaving her slack-jawed for several seconds.

"I don't want to die," Yuzu murmured mournfully, gaze fixated on the ground. She slowly picked herself up and Karin tensed. "But I don't want to be alone, Yae. I don't want to be left behind. Not ever again."

Karin swallowed thickly, taking a tentative step forward. "Yuzu," her voice wavered before settling into a firm tone. It had worked before, it could work again. "I'm not Yae. I'm Karin and you're Yuzu. Our father..."

"I kept waiting for you to come back. But you never did," Yuzu choked on the words, shoulders hunching as her entire body began to quiver. "I tried... I tried so hard to become a butterfly on my own so I could wait forever..."

"Yuzu you have to fight this!" Karin's hands clenched into fists.

"Mutsuki... Itsuki..." she mumbled, completely ignoring her twin. "They died in vain... I couldn't let my death go to waste. I couldn't let them all get away with what they'd done... what they would continue to do if I didn't stop them..."

A few short barks of laughter slipped past Yuzu's lips and startled Karin back against the wall. "Then everyone died," she burst into a fit of giggles, "because I killed them." A shiver of fear ran up Karin's spine at the wild look in Yuzu's eyes as she threw back her head in full out hysterical laughter. "I killed them and the malice consumed them! Even now they all rot in the Hell I created for them!" Her head snapped down as abruptly as her laughter died, her eyes dark and boring straight into Karin's. "And still I've been waiting all this time... for you to come back to me, Yae," She spoke only barely above a whisper, her mouth stretching out into a thin line. "You won't leave me alone again, right?"

"N-no," Karin stammered, suddenly too afraid to answer otherwise.

"No. You won't," Yuzu affirmed, lunging towards her twin with outstretched arms.

Barely a second passed before Ichigo and Rukia were racing for the door, the former slamming it open and scanning the room for the ghost child who'd stolen the pinwheel key. As their luck would have it, the boy was nowhere to be found.

"Damn it!" Ichigo slamming his fist against the wall punctuated the curse.

"We'll just have to look for him. He's probably still in the house," Rukia commented, barely suppressing her own aggravation in her tone.

Ichigo sighed heavily, running one hand through his orange hair. "Great. And if he isn't?" Rukia's only response was to shake her head and shrug. The unusually helpless gesture was a sharp reminder that they needed to finish this quickly; she was already exhausted, he wasn't fairing much better, and it was only going to get worse the longer they remained.

"All right. Let's go."

The camera hadn't worked. The thought hit him abruptly when he and Rukia had begun hurriedly searching the house for the boy, led on by giggles and whispered taunts from the other ghost children who would scamper away just as quickly as they were found. No, he amended in his mind, the camera did have an effect. The demon girl had fallen back and cried out in pain, but she hadn't vanished like the first ghost he'd tried the camera out on. It made an uneasy feeling roil in the pit of his stomach to think that his only weapon was starting to falter without a perceivable reason.

Was the girl's spirit stronger than that of the demon's he banished before? Or was the camera's exorcismal power based partially on the strength of his waning spiritual energy? He'd still had nearly full reserves when he'd first used the camera, but now he was pretty sure a huge chunk of his powers had been drained from him while he slept. Ichigo couldn't help but hope the demon child was stronger than her appearance suggested when the alternative was that they'd eventually be left weaponless.

"They're leading us on," Rukia grumbled her realization after several minutes of searching. They'd already made a pass through the second floor, led back down a second set of stairs, and now being subtley taunted into ascending the first flight of stairs a second time to be led in a circle.

"Then we'll just have to go where they don't want us to." Ichigo tilted his head slightly, gesturing towards the corridor they had passed near the stairs they had just descended.

Rukia nodded and followed after him, both of them briefly pausing when a girl poked her head around the corner further ahead of them. Her mouth curved upward in a malicious expression before she giggled and vanished around the corner. When she didn't reappear, the two shinigami continued on in the only direction the children hadn't tried to lead them.

Ichigo quietly slid open the only door at the end of the short hallway while Rukia watched their backs. The inside was as much of a mess as the rest of the house had been, though there was a lot more clutter. One thing in particular caught Ichigo's eye and he stepped into the room with Rukia close behind.

"These are the same keys, aren't they?" He asked, brushing his hand over the five circular keys set into the wall above a small altar. He couldn't pry any of them free when he tried picking at the edges with his fingernails, but they did spin.

"It looks that way," Rukia responded. "The color patterns of each of them are different though. They probably wouldn't work in just any lock, even if you could take them off."

"Yeah, probably," Ichigo conceded, taking a step back and examing the wall. "But this has to unlock something. Maybe there's another way out."

"It's worth a try." Rukia stepped forward to examine the lock. It wasn't difficult to figure out how the mechanism worked. Each circle had a pinwheel shape stamped on it and the colors of the points varied. It was just a matter of making all of the points on the pinwheel key in the center match the colors on the points of the other pinwheels it was touching.

The only real trick to the lock, Rukia quickly found out, was that the center key would also rotate whenever one of the corner keys was turned and could not be moved otherwise. After several turns it was only getting harder and harder to figure out which direction the center key was supposed to face, which made it impossible to know which keys she was supposed to be turning beyond trial-and-error.

"Turn this one." Ichigo didn't actually wait for her to follow his command or even give her a chance to ask why before he reached past her and turned the key himself. Her first, habitual response was to reprimand him for messing up her work, but there really wasn't any point. She hadn't really had a plan to begin with, so he hadn't messed anything up in the first place.

Seeming to sense the unasked question, he said, "These are the only two keys with red points on them," he pointed out. "But if this red point was lined up with this key, this orange point would have to be lined up with _this_ key." Ichigo tapped on the two pinwheels at the top in indication and Rukia began to see his logic. "But this wheel doesn't have any orange points on it, see?" And now she felt foolish for not seeing that herself. She must have been even more tired than she thought.

Rukia quickly turned the other keys into place with very little trouble now that she knew the center pinwheel's alignment and they heard the soft click of a door unlatching in the wall next to the altar. Ichigo pushed against it experimentally and it swung open without much effort.

Damp, cold air thick with the stench of mold rushed out of the small opening, and Ichigo ducked through the doorway first. He carefully began to descend the dark, narrow stairway inside, nearly slipping more than once on the slick, rocky steps and bracing himself with one hand on each side of the small passageway. The passage grew darker and darker the further they descended until Rukia had no choice but to take the lead and use her kidou to make a small light for them to see by.

The stairway eventually gave way to a large, underground cavern that had obviously been used as a storage area. Chests of drawers and kimono boxes littered the area, all of them rotting and damp. The air down in the cavern was thick with the stench of mold, rot, and stagnant water and a chilly breeze was whistling through the room. It gave the two Shinigami hope, because a breeze meant that the cave had to lead somewhere.

Noticing several candles ensconced in the rock walls and scattered around the room, Rukia lit several of them with her kidou before extingushing the ball of light and letting her eyes briefly fall shut for a few seconds of respite. They snapped back open when she heard a quiet, muffled thump followed by the sound of clothing rustling and scraping against something, the cavern echoing and amplifying the noise. Something was down here with them and a brief onceover of the small room was all it took to narrow down the potential location of whatever they had heard. There weren't many places for someone to hide other than inside of the large kimono boxes, and only one – sitting against the wall adjacent to the stairs – wasn't buried in a pile of other containers.

Ichigo raised the camera as they both quietly moved forward, each pausing with baited breath when they heard more rustling coming from the container before Rukia stepped forward and placed her hand on the lid. Glancing towards Ichigo to make sure he was ready, she flung off the lid and leapt back in surprise when the ghost boy inside yelped in shock and attempted to run off again. A bright flash lit up the area when Ichigo pressed the shutter button and the boy vanished, the stolen pinwheel key clattering to the ground.

Both Shinigami exhaled heavily in relief and Ichigo was quick to snatch up the key this time to make sure nothing else tried to snatch it from them again. "Well, that could have been more annoying," Ichigo grumbled, pocketing the key. It was a relief to know that the camera really was still working just fine considering how easily the ghost boy had been vanquished. The girl spirit he'd used it on earlier must have just been more resilient. "Let's get out of here."

"Wait." Ichigo turned, eyebrows furrowed, to see why exactly Rukia wanted to stay only to see her crawling up a pile of rubble and peeking through the gap at the top between the ceiling and the stack of rocks blocking off what must have once been a passageway. He quickly moved to support her in case the debris shifted under her weight. The rocks looked plenty heavy enough to support her small frame, but they were stacked precariously enough that they might easily collapse if she made a single wrong move.

Unconcerned with this possibility, Rukia climbed further and leaned far out enough into the adjoining cavern that Ichigo was certain she was about a millimeter away from falling flat on her face. "There's a long passage on the other side," she informed him, the echo of her voice alone confirming what must have been a huge space. "It might connect to the same one that leads outside the barrier." Her foot suddenly slipped a few inches and Ichigo moved to brace her. He quickly realized a few seconds later, when she started scooting herself backwards in an almost frantic attempt to climb back down that it had been a somewhat intentional move.

"Someone's coming," she hissed, dislodging a few smaller rocks in her descent and flinching when they clattered to the ground noisily. Ichigo quickly helped her back down and they backed away from the opening in the wall quietly, ducking behind a chest of drawers as the echo of dozens of footsteps grew louder and closer. It was impossible to tell how many 'people' were walking through the corridor beyond from the sounds reverberating throughout the caves, but they could both tell it was more than either was currently willing to confront.

They held their breaths when the spirits passed by the opening in the wall and their hearts stopped only seconds after the footsteps did. That was the last thing Rukia remembered before the room vanished and she abruptly found herself stumbling out into the long, stone corridor admist the group of spirits she and Ichigo had been hiding from. Fortunatley, none of them seemed to even notice the shinigami blocking their path and passed straight through her as they moved through the long, stone corridor

"What?" Rukia stammered, spinning around in a slow circle but unable to see Ichigo anywhere. Was she having another vision? A lump rose in her throat at the thought. If she was spacing out again and they were attacked, she'd be dead weight and Ichigo would end up getting hurt – or worse – trying to keep her safe.

Rukia turned back toward the rubble pile, hoping that by going back to her hiding place she could somehow wake herself up, but the scene shifted again into a larger cavern with what must have been somewhere close to one hundred lit candle prickets lining the walls of the room and even more arranged into a half circle in the center of the room. The spirits she had seen earlier where gathering there, some of them dressed identically to the veiled priests she had dispatched earlier, but most were men dressed in tattered clothes and scrawny to the point that she could easily count the number of vertebrae in their spines.

Muffled sobs reached her ears and, for the first time, Rukia realized that two pairs of the scrawny men were dragging two bound and gagged captives into the room with them. She couldn't make out either of their faces, only able to tell that one was a man and the other was a woman, but her stomach was starting to knot up nonetheless. The man was tossed onto the floor in the center of the room and held down by his captives.

"Throw her into the abyss," one of the veiled priests commanded. The woman screamed against her gag in protest, digging her heels into the ground and struggling fiercely against the two men who began to drag her further into the cavern towards a shinto gate marking another entrance. The man, too, began thrashing more fiercely and crying out what sounded like a muffled 'no' while he struggled.

More of the scrawny men moved to pin down his legs after he was flipped onto his back and Rukia finally got a good look at his face. She didn't recognize him at first, curious at the chord of familiarity it struck in her, but then her vision of Hisana with her – with _their_ – parents came flooding back and her eyes widened.

"Otousan?" She stammered, taking a few stumbling steps forward before properly getting her feet under her and rushing to his side. Why was he here? What were they going to do to him? If he was here then was that woman they brought in earlier...?

"Are you satisfied?" An angry voice bellowed – one of the veiled priest – as his staff slammed into the ground only inches from her father's face. "Both of the twins are dead! Along with those wretched daughters of yours." The priest practically spat and the man froze, his eyes widening and tears beginning to spill out of them. "If the abyss is not appeased and malice spills forth, the deaths that follow will all be on your hands!" He slammed his staff into the ground again with a sharp clang, and the man turned his face away and squeezed his eyes shut.

Rukia's eyes narrowed as she kneeled beside her father – knowing she could do nothing to prevent whatever was about to happen but feeling compelled to at least stay at his side nonetheless – and scowled deeply. Was that what this whole ceremony was supposed to be about? Keeping a hole in the ground content?

"We should only be so lucky that we have a Kusabi nearly prepared for the cutting ritual to replace the lost shrine maidens," the priest snarled. "And with the addition of your wife, the rumbling should stay quiet long enough to prepare another set of twins." The man's struggling renewed and he spat obscenities into the gag, but no amount of thrashing would work with five other men keeping him pinned.

The veiled priest ignored his thrashing and moved away while another man moved to pin his head between his hands. "Those who commit such crimes against the village," the priest grumbled coldly, "become Mourners who will never see the light of day again."

Rukia blinked and suddenly she was staring up at the ceiling of the cavern, her limbs all pinned to the ground and her head locked in place. A veiled priest standing over her kneeled down, a long needle threaded with a thick black string and her heart began racing in panic. One icy cold hand pressed over her face and the last thing she saw was the needle heading straight for her eye.

"Damn it," Ichigo cursed under his breath when a single set of footsteps began to approach their hiding place. If it was only one or two spirits they could handle it, but if all the others were still waiting just outside in the corridor, they'd likely have a small army on their hands. "We're going to have to make a break for it," he whispered, shifting as quietly as he could manage into a better position to spring up and run.

The steps they had first come down were only a few feet away, but reaching them wasn't even half the problem. The stairway itself was dark, narrow, and slippery – and with gravity working against them he wasn't sure they could climb the steps fast enough to escape before the spirits caught up to them. Unlike he and Rukia, they didn't have to worry about things like gravity and slippery surfaces.

Ichigo swallowed thickly when the footsteps stopped again, heart beating fiercely against his ribcage. Maybe the spirits didn't know they were here, maybe they wouldn't have to try and run, and maybe they could wait it out. He frowned slightly and glanced over at Rukia when he realized she hadn't responded yet, nor had she moved at all when he'd made the suggestion. A lump rose in his throat.

Rukia's eyes were glassy and unfocused, her shoulders were tense and quivering in contrast to her otherwise slumped form. A shiver of panic ran up Ichigo's spine and he swallowed down the lump. He'd seen her like this before when they'd been running from the hoard of spirits that had chased them all the way to the old, hollowed out tree with his sisters and she had fallen behind. Once Karin and Yuzu were safe, he'd gone back down the path and found her standing and staring blankly up at the steps leading up to the shrine without any care for the approaching hoard of spirits and a look of rage and horror etched into her face. Placing a hand on her shoulder and giving her a firm shake, Ichigo hissed her name but got no reaction from the dark haired Shinigami.

A deep, gravely gasp that was entirely too close for comfort made Ichigo freeze up. He slowly turned to look up at the source of the noise and nearly fell backwards out of shock. One of the spirits was leaning over their hiding place, staring straight down at them with his mouth hanging open, and Ichigo bit down on the inside of his lip as his breath caught in his lungs. The man's eyes had been sewn shut with thick, black thread. He couldn't see them. They might still be able to get away without attracting any attention or having to fight if they stayed quiet.

Ichigo could practically feel the moment that Rukia snapped out of her trance. He saw her shoulders jerk violently out of the corner of his eye and saw awareness flood her previously dead eyes. He'd been about to wave his hand to draw her attention towards him and make a silencing motion with his finger, but he didn't get the chance. The instant she had returned to reality and had seen the man hovering over them her hands snapped straight up with so much force he was surprised she didn't dislocate her shoulders.

"Byakurai!" Her voice cracked, resembling a shriek more than anything, and a streak of white hot lightning lanced straight through the spirit's head. More footsteps began approaching and Ichigo knew that hiding wasn't going to do them any good now.

Practically yanking Rukia to her feet, Ichigo pushed her on ahead of him in the direction of the stairs, yelling at her to run. She was still horribly disoriented from the sudden shift in reality but after stumbling uneasily into the narrow, pitch black space and with the last terrible memory haunting her, she managed to get her feet under her and was sprinting up the stairs in record time with Ichigo only a few steps behind.

They were even faster than he expected. Ichigo and Rukia could see dim moon light filtering in from the windows in the room only a few feet above them when Ichigo's ankles were yanked out from underneath him and the camera flew out of his hands. The snap of his chin hitting stone made his teeth rattle and his head spin sharply. The room tilted and he squeezed his eyes shut to try and regain his bearings, kicking out at the spirit who had hold of him with his free leg and pulled himself out of its grasp.

Once Ichigo's vision had straightened out, he tried pushing himself back on his feet only for a foot to slam down into his back and knock the air out of his lungs. He wheezed heavily as pain shot up his spine and through his ribs as he was shoved down on the sharp edge of the stone steps. He flipped over onto his side to knock the foot loose, but quickly found himself pinned as two more of the Mourners latched onto his legs and began dragging him back down into the cavern below. Ichigo scrabbled to find purchase on the steps while he kicked and thrashed at his assailants to no avail.

Panic gripped him when a pair of Mourners moved past him towards Rukia, who had taken up her usual kidou stance, though her hands were wavering as though she was trying to figure out where to aim and a frantic expression adorned her face. She took a few steps back and refocused her aim at the approaching spirits but no incantations let her. She wasn't going to fire, he realized. She didn't want to hit _him_.

Ichigo latched onto the Mourner's ankles, ignoring the biting cold that seeped into his fingers, and used their leverage to pull himself free while pulling their feet out from under them. He'd only just started to get his feet under himself when a frigid hand grabbed his shoulder, flipped him onto his back and fingers dug into his chin to force his head back to the ground . More Mourners latched onto his legs again before he had a chance to kick them away and the two he tripped were quick to pin both of his arms down.

"Run you idiot!" Ichigo called out. Rukia couldn't use her kidou, and if she tried to help him now she'd only be captured too. He didn't hear any response from her and hoped against hope that she actually listened to him this time.

"The Remaining," the one gripping his chin hissed, so close to him that his cold, rancid breath brushed over Ichigo's face. "Only spared because he was a Remaining."

"The criminal," another spat. "The one who cursed us all."

"Should have taken his eyes," the first one spoke again, and a shiver of panic ran up Ichigo's spine and he began to thrash harder. The breath was abruptly knocked out of him a second time when the spirit gripping his chin drove his knee into Ichigo's gut and he choked on the bile that rose in his throat as his eyes rolled back into his head and the last thing he saw before his vision went black was the Mourner's fingers moving towards his eye and a bright flash of light.

Rukia might not have noticed Ichigo had fallen so quickly if the camera hadn't flown out of his hands and past her head, just barely clipping her shoulder. She froze up at first, her mind trying to piece together why exactly he'd thrown the camera at her before realizing he _wouldn't. _Then she had whirled around so fast she nearly tripped and had to steady herself against the wall. The shinigami gasped at the sight of a hoard of Mourners flooding the narrow staircase and that a few of them had caught and pinned Ichigo on the ground and were starting to drag him back down the steps.

Raising her hands automatcially to cast a kidou, her mind ran through the list of possible kidou she could cast and came up empty. The space was too narrow. If she cast a hakudo, Ichigo would most likely get caught in it, too, and she didn't have enough energy to keep so many spirits bound with her bakudo. Her mind whirled with ideas and possibilites that were all shut down just as fast. If she aimed higher she wouldn't hit him but the ceiling might cave in and she'd completely miss the only spirits that were an immediate threat. Charging in would be useless against so many opponents, and a few of the spirits were already moving past him and heading straight towards her.

Both of them fell flat on their faces, pulled off their feet by the still struggling Ichigo and somehow she felt herself start to calm down. The panic clouding her judgement ebbed and when he ordered her to run it was replaced with annoyance. These feelings she could deal with. She knew how to channel anger – this she had plenty of practice with – and she began thinking more clearly. She turned away, scanning the dimly lit stairs behind her and quickly caught sight of the object she was looking for. She couldn't use her brawn and she couldn't use her kidou, but she could still use the camera.

Snatching it up, she pointed it straight at the group of spirits like she had seen Ichigo do earlier, located the shutter button, and silently hoped it hadn't been broken when it clattered to the ground before smashing the button repeatedly with her finger. Several of the spirits fell back, some of them disappearing outright, and rushed forward when she'd forced them several feet back down the path. Moving to stand between Ichigo and the remaining Mourners, Rukia took a deep breath and thrust her palms outward with a cry of "Soukatsui!"

The stairway shook from the resulting explosive force and dust and pebbles began raining down from the ceiling. Ichigo coughed and sputtered harshly behind her and she pulled him to his feet and urged him up the steps while taking several backwards glances to make sure they weren't being followed. It didn't take much to urge themselves back into a quick pace when the ground began rumbling.

Once at the top, Ichigo slammed the door shut behind them to slow down their potential pursuit. It was probably a useless move, but more of an instinctual one than anything. Rukia had stopped and doubled over, panting for breath, and he was about to drag her back into running but she brushed him off.

"It's okay," she panted only partially from exertion, taking a step back and leaning against the wall for support. She clutched at her chest as though trying to make more room in her lungs for extra air. "They can't come up here." The knowledge had flooded her when the veiled priest had lowered the needle to her eye. Mourners weren't allowed to leave the underground tunnels they were forced to work in. They were criminals and that was their punishment.

Rukia felt her stomach twist again and it must have shown on her face.

"What the heck happened? What did you see?" Ichigo gasped, only just beginning to realize how horrified she had looked when she had first attacked the spirit after snapping out of her stupor.

"Later," she gasped, resting her eyes for a moment before opening them again. "We still have two more keys to find." She straightened up, took a deep, shaky breath, and abolished the image of her parents being dragged away from her mind.

Ichigo thought about suggesting they head back to the tree and take a brief break or at least get a bit of sustenance in them before venturing into the next hell hole but the words died in his throat. She would only argue that it was a waste of time that was better spent finding the remaining keys and leaving the village as soon as possible.

"Yeah, sure. Just give me a minute." He couldn't disagree with her logic, but he had an equally difficult time disagreeing with the nagging urge to collapse on the spot and sleep through the next couple of centuries. His spine, ribs, stomach, head – hell _everything – _was groaning in protest at the mere thought of moving. She didn't protest when he eased himself into a sitting position and half-sprawled over the dusty table with his eyes shut.

A few moments later he scowled when he felt a familiar warmth spread across his scalp and start to soothe away the worst of the ache. Without looking up or even opening his eyes, he caught Rukia's hand in his and pulled it away before she wasted anymore of her energy healing superficial injuries. She started to pull her hand back – presumably to continue – so he tightened his grasp on her wrist until she gave up and let their hands drop down to the table.

Ichigo let out a heavy sigh, scattering particles of dust across the weathered, wooden surface of the table. A roiling mass of stress, frustration, and worry was still churning inside of him and holding still for so long while they were no closer to escaping the village and his sisters were no further from danger made him feel anxious to the point that even his emotions were starting to feel completely exhausted. Never before had the desire to get home and collapse into his bed been stronger than it was right then.

Suddenly annoyed by the heavy silence, Ichigo mumbled, "Should've run." He felt Rukia's hand twitch underneath of his and he subconsciously brushed his thumb over her knuckles.

"You're welcome, fool," she grumbled back weakly. He cracked one eye open to glance over at her, finding her slumped over the table with her chin resting in her free hand and her eyes drifting open and shut slowly. He'd been expecting a little more of a fight from her, but she remained silent and let her gaze drift down to their hands. A few seconds later he realized he hadn't stopped moving his thumb over the back of her hand and pulled away a little too quickly to be subtle. He tried to pass it off as the sudden urge to stretch his arms out over his head.

"Ready?" He asked.

Rukia sighed heavily. "Not really," she muttered, but climbed to her feet all the same. They had to keep going sooner or later, and the longer they waited the harder it would be to convince themselves to get moving. Once Ichigo was up on his feet again, she placed the camera back in his hands and almost managed a teasing scowl. "Try hanging onto it next time."

Ichigo scoffed at her. "There won't _be_ a next time, because _next_ time I'm just gonna kick their asses." The few minutes of rest had done a small amount of good. He didn't feel like running a marathon anytime soon, but he felt like they'd at least make it out of the village.

They left the Osaka house without any further incident, the children spirits probably finding no reason to harrass them now that their game was spoiled, and headed to their next destination after briefly consulting their map. The Tachibana and Kiryu houses sat next to each other in the village, both roughly the same dismally large size and divided only by the path that led to the Kurosawa house.

"Hopefully they all kept their keys hidden in the same way. In a kimono box in some kind of storage room." Rukia eyed each of the buildings in an attempt to judge which was smaller and, therefore, slightly easier to search.

"_Hopefully,_" Ichigo grumbled. Several seconds of silence passed while they stared at the house and half hoped the keys would magically materialize. Unsurprisingly, it didn't happen. "We should probably split up. We'll find the keys faster that way."

Rukia's eyebrows jumped up at the suggestion. She'd been about to voice that very idea herself and had already been preparing herself for another fight. Maybe she had actually gotten through to him earlier, though she could tell by the expression on his face that he wasn't all that thrilled with his own suggestion.

"Mmh," she hummed in agreement, tilting her head in a slight nod. "Avoid confrontation if you can," she advised.

They approached the closer of the two houses – marked Tachibana – and Ichigo immediately called dibs when he saw the multitude of sharp instruments sticking out of the front door like an angry mob had passed through but had given up on breaking the door down. He took it as a pretty good sign that there would probably be severely pissed off spirits waiting inside, as opposed to the somewhat pissed off spirits hanging around elsewhere, and therefore slightly more dangerous. And he had a lot more energy left to burn than Rukia did at the moment, even in spite of the beating he'd taken earlier.

As was the trend, the door refused to budge.

"This is really starting to piss me off," Ichigo grumbled, kicking weakly at the door.

"Maybe there's another way in," Rukia suggested, gesturing towards the bridge suspended above them, connecting the two houses together.

Ichigo grimaced slightly. "Yeah, it looks that way," he grumbled, glancing down at Rukia.

She cocked an eyebrow at him, crossing her arms over her chest. "Do you want another 'boost'?"

"Not really. It doesn't look like I have much of a choice, though." He moved closer to the bridge and glared up at it distastefully. "Just don't accidentally fling me over it. Or _into_ it."

Rukia scoffed, positioning herself in front of the bridge and locking her fingers together in front of her. "Like this, right?" She asked and he nodded before stepping up into her hands and being launched up into the air. Being more prepared this time, Ichigo caught himself on the railing and swung himself up onto the bridge. He tested the door leading into the Tachibana house and found it locked. He tested it again with his foot and found it more cooperative this time.

"All right, I'm in," He leaned partially over the railing to call down to her, stepping away again quickly when it groaned ominously under his weight.

Rukia nodded before leaping up onto the bridge herself. "We'll meet up here once we find the keys."

Ichigo scowled slightly when she turned to head through the opposite door. "Shouldn't I just come find you if I get back first? We'll find the keys faster that way."

Rukia turned back. "And how am I supposed to know whether or not you've already found a key and started looking for me if I come back and you aren't here? We don't have any way of contacting each other."

Ichigo scratched at the back of his head and fell into a contemplative silence for several seconds, trying to think of a solution to the dilemma she'd pointed out. "I could sense your reiatsu," he pointed out.

"You couldn't sense Yuzu or Karin until we were extremely close to them," she reminded him. Something in the air – maybe all the residual demonic energy or something to do with the barrier, she wasn't sure – made it difficult to sense anything specific as it was, especially over a long distance, and the houses they were about to enter were anything but small.

Ichigo fell silent again, the downturn of his mouth a pretty good indication that he wanted to find some way of making his idea work. "All right, how about this: We leave the doors open and if one of us finds a key and gets back here before the other, we shut the door. That way if we happen to miss each other inside the house, we'll at least know where the other person is."

After considering it for a moment, Rukia gave in and nodded. He'd actually put enough trust in her to suggest splitting up; she could allow him this much. She was the first to turn and head through the door leading into the Kiryu house and, after several seconds of reconsidering the idea of splitting up, Ichigo turned towards the Tachibana house and stepped inside.

_Bridge that connects the two houses..._

_A doll..._

_The Tsuchihara grave..._

_A woman hiding in a kimono box..._

_ - Mayu Amakura_

A/N: I'm so mean to Rukia's family... and everyone else, really. Was Ichigo's idea a good one? I guess we'll see... fufufufufu...

I'm trying this new thing of churning out a page a day instead of looking at what I have left to do overall and psyching myself out. It's... working slightly better than my previous method... I guess? It'd work even better if certain things that I didn't initially plan for would stop cropping up and forcing me to redo my outline! *grumble grumble* Anywho, I hope it was at least somewhat worth the wait!


	11. Chapter Eleven

Obligatory Author's Note: For those of you who like Fatal Frame, or have no idea what Fatal Frame is but are somewhat interested in finding out, there's a remake of Crimson Butterfly out for the Wii but, as of right now, Nintendo of America doesn't seem to be planning a North American release. If you're interested in getting the game released in NA, please join Project Zero on facebook. There's a link to the page on my profile.

**The Village**

**Chapter Eleven**

_ "Itsuki gave me a bell. My eyes are not too good. The bell will tell him if I go near a dangerous place. Itsuki said he will always come when he hears the bell. He said even if I am hiding away and crying, he will find me."_

_Chitose Tachibana_

Stepping inside of the Tachibana house was a lot like walking into a freezer. The air felt heavier and colder than it did outside and it was tinted with a metallic scent that made Ichigo's chest tighten in uneasiness. The room he'd found himself in was empty and ordinary looking enough – except for the twin dolls standing on a small table next to the door and several candles left inexplicably lit – but he felt anxious about going any further inside. He couldn't quite pin the feeling down or the reason for it, but something about the house set his nerves on edge.

Ichigo turned back, already regretting the suggestion to split up and fully prepared to take it back. Except Rukia had already disappeared inside of the Kiryu house without hesitation, and he felt a little ridiculous for letting his nerves get to him. He wondered if his anxiety was misplaced, or if the Tachibana house really was the more dangerous of the two. Swallowing thickly and determined to be done with the place as soon as possible, he moved further into the room and began searching.

The feeling of imminent danger lurking just outside of his peripheral never left him, but it was quickly pushed to the back of Ichigo's mind shortly after he began searching through room after room through kimono boxes, dressers, and other potential hiding places for a pinwheel key. Most of the rooms he'd gone through so far were similarly empty or sparsely decorated so he was able to quickly move through several of them, but even after several minutes and several rooms had gone by he still hadn't been able to find the key. He was starting to get the nagging suspicion that he'd gotten turned around more than once and was searching through the same handful of similar looking rooms over and over again.

The twinge of anxiety had started to grow as more time went by. For the past several minutes, Ichigo felt certain he was about to be attacked by something at any moment and when nothing continued to happen it made him feel all the more tense. That was probably why he'd yelped when he'd carelessly flung open a closet door and found a pair of dark eyes staring out at him from the darkness. Ichigo stumbled backwards, nearly tripping over his own feet in his haste, but the spirit had already launched itself at him in a flash of red and knocked him to the ground before he had a chance to raise the camera.

It took Ichigo several dazed moments to realize he'd been tackled so effortlessly to the ground by a little girl not even half his size. He might have felt embarrassed if there'd been room left for anything but panic that slowly faded into confusion when he realized the spirit hadn't been trying to strangle him when she'd thrown her arms around his neck and was sobbing with everything she had.

"Itsuki-nii, you came back!" The girl whimpered, her tiny arms tightening until he could barely breathe. "Everyone's gone, they're all..." She choked on a sob and buried her tear-stained face in his shoulder. Coldness began spreading out across Ichigo's torso, seeping into his lungs, and making his skin go numb. As much as it made him feel guilty to do it – demon or not – Ichigo had to pry her off before she made him freeze to death.

"Kid. Can't breathe," he gasped, pushing her away as gently as he could. Surprisingly, she relented – albeit slowly – without too much coaxing, allowing Ichigo room to sit up and catch his breath. He rubbed at his throat until the worst of the tingling numbness had been soothed away, and carefully eyed the spirit girl. So far she didn't seem all too threatening, but neither had the other demon children back in the Osaka house.

If she'd been planning on attacking him (again) she made no indication. She'd sat back on her knees at his side after he'd pushed her away, looking like someone had kicked her puppy, with her hands clenched in her lap. She was extremely pale like most of the other spirits he'd encountered and she was practically swimming in the crimson kimono she was wearing. Her arms were little more than skin and bone from what he could see and her face was gaunt.

"Are you angry with me?" She asked quietly, picking nervously at her kimono sleeves and timidly peering up at him through her black bangs.

Ichigo stared back blankly in confusion. "Er... no? I guess?" He wasn't exactly sure why a demon would be asking him something like that. Until a few seconds passed and the name she'd called him by earlier finally processed. Itsuki-nii. She thought he was her brother.

"Um, hey," he began awkwardly, "I'm sorry, but... I'm not Itsuki-"

"I was so scared..." The girl ignored him, wiping at her pale face with her hands and sniffling, a bell tied to her wrist jingling with each movement. "I hid because it was scary, everyone kept screaming, and it was so dark..." her voice cracked and she began sobbing and hiccupping into her hands. "I couldn't get out! The door was stuck and no one would help me..." She choked on her words, giving up on speaking entirely, and Ichigo looked around in alarm when the candles began flickering wildly in reaction to her loud crying.

Unsure of what else he could do, Ichigo placed his hand on her head in what he hoped was a comforting gesture and fought not to flinch away from the cold spreading through his fingers. "It's okay, now. You're safe." He couldn't really think of anything else to say to her, but it made her crying begin to subside.

Ichigo frowned slightly. She must have died, probably of starvation, after she'd gotten trapped in the closet and had spent her last moments alone and terrified. Her eyesight had always been terrible and she was so terrified of strangers that she often ran and hid and got herself into trouble more than once. He'd given her the bells so he'd be able to find her easier when that happened. Still, she was a very sweet girl and how his little sister ended up as a demon was...

"I'm not Itsuki," he said firmly, more for his own benefit than anything else, and the odd thoughts began to fade. Why had he suddenly felt like this girl was his sister? His thoughts drifted to Karin and Yuzu and a lump rose in his throat.

If the spirit noticed his declaration she made no indication. "I'm sorry, Itsuki-nii," she sniffled, slipping the bells off her wrist and Ichigo noticed for the first time that a key was tied to them. "I tried to give your friend the key to your room, but... I couldn't do it. I know it was important but... I got scared. I'm sorry!" She bowed her head in apology.

Ichigo opened his mouth, a reply forming on the tip of his tongue, and then froze. Itsuki. That was why it sounded familiar. Karin had called that white haired boy who'd killed himself that, didn't she? The boy who wrote the notebook about leaving the village. That meant that this was _his_ house and that was the key to _his_ room. Itsuki had been planning on breaking the seal himself and escaping _and_ he'd already found one of the keys in the storehouse he'd been locked up in. It stood to reason that the key kept in the Tachibana house might be somewhere in the boy's room. His mouth fell shut for a few seconds before he spoke to the girl again.

"That's fine, Chitose. I'm not angry with you. I just need the key back now." He didn't feel too great about letting the kid go on thinking he was her brother, but he was even less enthused by the idea of potentially upsetting her, and possibly having to take the key by force. He wasn't all too sure she could even be convinced he wasn't Itsuki, considering she'd already ignored his claims to be otherwise.

It didn't even dawn on Ichigo that he'd just called this girl by her name without knowing who she was.

Chitose nodded slowly, untying the key from her bells and holding it out to Ichigo. It tumbled uselessly from her fingers before he had a chance to take it from her and clattered to the floor. Her dark eyes had gone wide and her body went frigid in shock. Ichigo stiffened in alarm, worried that she had realized he wasn't her brother, but her gaze had shifted to something behind him. He spared a quick glance over his shoulder but didn't see anything that would be any cause for alarm. He turned back when Chitose clung to his arm and he could feel her hands shaking terribly. Her gaze remained firmly fixated on the wall.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Ssh!" She hissed sharply, shrinking down into her crimson kimono. "She'll hear you." Ichigo turned back towards the wall, but still saw nothing. "I don't want to see her," Chitose practically spat, malcontent evident in her tone. "It's all her fault. Her _and_ Yae! You being locked away, Mutsuki vanishing... I hate them!" Ichigo heard a door out in the hallway suddenly bang open and Chitose flinched and buried her face in his arms.

"Tell her to go away!" she ordered, her voice somewhere between a hiss and a whimper. Without another word, she released his arm and scurried back into her closet to hide and Ichigo swallowed thickly. He could hear now what Chitose must have been hearing before – the floorboards out in the corridor creaking as someone passed over them.

Tucking the key Chitose had dropped on the floor into his pocket, Ichigo quietly rose to his feet with the camera at the ready. The cloying stench of blood in the air began to grow thicker until he could practically taste it as the footsteps drew closer and he could feel the temperature dropping significantly. Something extremely bad was coming, and Ichigo was not looking forward to fighting whatever it was. He silently hoped it would pass by without incident.

Ichigo jumped and choked back a yelp when the door to the room slammed open. A pale woman in a stark white kimono with copious amounts of blood splattered across the front of it stepped into the room. He stumbled backward, hands shaking and fumbling awkwardly with the camera until her gaze snapped sharply to focus on him and he froze completely. She wasn't really any different than the other spirits he'd already encountered - except that the air around her was distorted and colorless, and he was fairly certain the blood drenching the front of her kimono was not hers – but something about her made his blood run cold.

A malicious grin spread across her face. "_There you are_," she spoke just above a whisper, her voice strained and slightly hoarse as though trying to hold back laughter, and a cold shiver ran up Ichigo's spine. She lunged forward, hands outstretched, and the abrupt action unlocked his frozen joints and he quickly sidestepped her and lifted his camera. He stepped backwards quickly when she turned and mashed the shutter button.

The woman didn't even flinch and a lump rose in Ichigo's throat.

"Are you going to leave me too, Itsuki?" She asked quietly, choking briefly – though whether it was a sob or a giggle she was holding back, he couldn't quite tell – and when she slowly stepped closer he caught sight of a rope shaped bruise ringing her neck. Yes, that was definitely someone else's blood staining her clothes.

Ichigo stumbled backwards, glancing over his shoulder towards the exit before quickly refocusing his gaze back on the spirit. The camera didn't work, he didn't know how to use kidou like Rukia, and something in him was warning against trying to fight her off physically. He pushed down the panic that was starting to course through his veins and continued backing towards the door, not daring to take his eyes off the spirit for even a second.

"Everyone betrays me," she murmured darkly, advancing slowly with each step he tried to put between them. "Nee-san abandoned me, Munakata never came back to help us, and father..." Her hand brushed over the bruise on her neck and her eyes crinkled in amusement. "He died... screaming..." She chuckled and Ichigo felt his stomach turn. The twisted expression of mirth that had crept across her face abruptly dropped and her eyes narrowed at him. "But you won't leave me, right?"

The second Ichigo cleared the doorway, he turned and sprinted down the corridor with everything he had. Unrestrained, manic laughter that made his breath catch in his throat echoed down the hallway in pursuit. He didn't dare look back even once while tearing through room after room, trying to escape the demented woman and her chilling laughter but feeling even more lost after every turn he took. None of the rooms or halls he passed through looked familiar in the least and he had absolutely no idea how to get back outside, which was starting to look like his only good option.

The next door Ichigo came across didn't give an inch when he slammed against it and he panicked briefly. Hoping against hope, his fingers fumbled for the key he'd gotten from Chitose, the hammering of his heart quickening with each wasted second spent digging it out of his pocket and clumsily jamming it in the lock as the sound of footsteps and stench of blood began to catch up with him. The key turned and the door finally gave way and Ichigo stumbled inside and slammed the door shut behind him even knowing it wouldn't do anything to stop a spirit. He crouched down on the floor, catching his breath, and frantically dug through his mind for any idea of what to do next.

On the plus side, he'd found Itsuki's room. On the downside, he was trapped and completely defenseless against the demon pursuing him. The only thing he could hope for at this point was that she wouldn't find him here, and he could escape once she'd passed by him. It was a big risk, considering the room offered no hiding places, and half of the wall was made up of bars that would allow anyone looking in from the corridor to see almost the entire room. Ichigo was forced to stay crouched in the corner, pressing himself as flat against the door as he could.

Ichigo's thoughts immediately drifted to the Shinigami badge he'd left lying on his desk and silently cursed himself for leaving it behind in spite of the risk. If he'd known any of this was going to happen he would have much rather faced the consequences of a hollow setting it off and having to come up with a reasonable explanation that his sister's would buy. None of them would be in this situation if he had just...

A floorboard near the door creaked. Ichigo held his breath and went completely still. The stench of blood had grown overwhelming and was beginning to make him feel nauseaous. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she must have been standing just on the other side of the door, and his heart raced faster when the footsteps pause. He stayed frozen for what felt like hours while he waited for her to either move past or find him, nearly gagging more than once from the awful smell, but neither happened.

After several tense moments of complete silence, she was suddenly gone.

_Yae's heart had plummeted straight into her stomach when she'd heard her twin sister shriek as she slipped from the path. One moment her sister had been running behind her, beseeching her to slow down, and the next she had vanished into the ravine below._

_ She should have waited. She should have slowed down and let Sae catch up with her. She knew her sister was physically weaker but with the fear of being caught lurking behind and the prospect of freedom laying out ahead of her made her impatient. But a future without her sister in it was hardly a future at all. It was why they were leaving in the first place – so they could stay together. So that no one would have to die._

_ She should have waited!_

_ Yae looked out over the ravine where Sae had fallen from the path, fearing the worst but seeing nothing through the thick foliage as though the forest had swallowed her twin whole. "Sae? Sae!" She called, swallowing back a sob and scanning the area desperately for any sign of movement. Her cries became more desperate the longer they went unanswered until tears were streaming down her face._

_ Sae never answered her, and Yae wasn't sure she even could._

_ "I'm coming to find you... Please be all right," she whispered, scrubbing roughly at her watery eyes before turning back to the path and hurrying alongside the ravine._

_ After several minutes of searching, Yae finally managed to find a safer path down into the ravine below and began backtracking to where her sister had fallen. Her legs were quickly growing weary and torn from wading through the thick, prickly brush but sheer panic pushed her onwards. Sae needed her and she wasn't going to let her sister down again. She was going to stay by her side this time, they were going to leave together, and they were going to stay together for the rest of their lives._

_ Yae searched the forest for hours, digging through the brush until her hands were bloody and sore and crying out Sae's name until she was hoarse. She knew she must have walked up and down the entire length of the ravine. No response ever came, and Yae never found her sister. It wasn't supposed to turn out like this._

_ Yae climbed back out of the ravine, gasping and shaking from exertion and sorrow, and curled herself up against a tree alongside the path. There had to be something. Even if she had died, Sae couldn't have simply vanished. She had to have gone somewhere, but where?_

_ "The village," she muttered, slowly picking herself up. Sae might have headed back. They didn't know the forest very well and she might have been too scared to go on without Yae. Maybe... just maybe..._

_ The ceremonial torches were lit when she finally found her way back, and the sight of them made her heart stop beating. They couldn't have. They wouldn't. They were supposed to be together so why...? And then the earth rumbled ominously and the last thing Yae saw was a black cloud rising from the center of the village, exploding outwards, blanketing everything..._

_ A girl stood at the base of a red shinto gate, sobbing into her hands and murmuring apologies over and over until she wore herself out. It wasn't until her tears ran dry and she'd managed to calm down that she realized she couldn't remember why she was crying in the first place, who she was apologizing to, or why she was standing before a shinto gate in an otherwise empty forest. She felt at a loss as though all of her innards had been scooped out until-_

_ "Yae? Is that you?" The man's face seemed like it should have been familiar to her. She could almost pin a name to him if she tried, but the effort of remembering made her heart ache._

_ "Where are Sae and Itsuki?"_

_ A cold shudder ran up her spine, and Yae quietly asked, "Who?"_

Rukia had felt hesitance about going any further into the Kiryu house once she crossed over the threshold and the temperature plummeted, but she didn't have time to ponder the sinking feeling in her stomach.

A pale face partially overshadowed by long, black hair suddenly appeared on the other side of the lattice just to Rukia's left, startling her into action. She lifted her hands and stepped backwards to gain more distance, and her stomach lurched when her back hit the wooden railing behind her and it wobbled and creaked under her weight. Before she had time to regain her balance the aged wood snapped and the sickening rush of weightlessness flooded her chest. Too shocked to react properly and get her feet under her, Rukia slammed into the floor below flat on her back.

The wind was knocked out of her lungs and she spent the next several seconds lying motionless and gasping until she was finally able to breathe again. She coughed, then groaned when the action sent a sharp jolt up her spine. There was no time to gauge the damage that may have been done, and anything less than broken bones or gaping wounds wasn't something she could afford to waste her energy trying to fix with kidou. The muscles in her back protested angrily when she managed to climb back to her feet and knock some of the dust off of her dress, and she gingerly stretched them out in an effort to soothe away some of the soreness. When she finally did return to Karakura, she would have to see Urahara about getting a sturdier gigai. A one story fall really shouldn't have hurt so much.

Fortunately, the spirit that had startled her into falling through the railing was nowhere to be found. Once Rukia regained her bearings and was certain she wasn't about to be ambushed by any demons, she started searching for the pinwheel key. She found a small storage area full of kimono boxes right where she had landed, but found that most were either empty or stuffed with old, musty smelling clothes. After searching through the last box, Rukia turned to move on to the next room, and came face to face with the same spirit that had first appeared when she'd entered the house – a young girl in a dark grey kimono with a curtain of black hair falling well past her shoulders and obscuring most of her pale face. She abruptly vanished almost as quickly as she had appeared.

Rukia cautiously stepped out of the storage room and immediately caught sight of the girl again, standing motionless at the base of the stairs leading back up to the second floor and staring up at the landing. The shinigami moved towards her slowly, confused by her behavior. The spirit didn't seem to be one of the 'after images' they'd seen, but she didn't seem to be a demon either in spite of the fact that she didn't have a chain of fate. Rukia paused when the girl's head turned towards her and their eyes met.

"Kill it," she murmured, a shred of vehemence laced into her otherwise quiet tone.

Rukia frowned slightly. "What do you mean?" The girl didn't answer and began to slowly ascend the stairs, pausing expectantly halfway up as though waiting for Rukia to follow her. Being the only spirit in the place that seemed to react to her with something other than violence she decided it wouldn't hurt to ask, "I'm looking for a key. It's round, with a pinwheel design on it. Do you know where it is?"

The girl didn't move or respond, simply staring down at the Shinigami as though she had no intention of answering unless Rukia followed her. After a brief staring contest, Rukia reluctantly moved towards the steps. It was probably a bad idea, but she had a feeling that the spirit would continue to pester her anyway until she did as it asked and maybe the girl would be willing to tell her where to find the key. She followed the younger girl at a distance to give herself enough time to react if the spirit suddenly decided to swivel around and attack.

The spirit led Rukia to the area beyond the lattice near the door she'd first entered and abruptly stopped. When she remained frozen in place and silent Rukia gave the room a cursory glance but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. A tatami mat was laid out on the floor and a faded folding screen was pushed into the far corner next to a kimono hanging up on a rack. Next to that was a smaller separate room with a writing desk and bookcase packed with old, dusty tomes. She couldn't imagine what in this room the spirit wanted her to 'kill' unless she found something particularly offensive about the vase of wilted flowers in the corner.

"Kill... it. Kill the doll. My substitute... there is no need for it."

Rukia turned back towards the young girl and she, with deliberate slowness, lifted her arm and pointed straight at the wall she was facing. Rukia gave the area a second glance, but had no idea what the girl could be referring to. As if sensing her confusion the spirit stepped forward and the Shinigami cautiously moved aside.

After taking several slow steps forward, the girl vanished through the wall.

Rukia scowled slightly, annoyed with herself for wasting her time with the spirit for several seconds until she noticed something she hadn't before. It was difficult to tell at first, the wall being cracked in places and dingy and the room very dimly lit by only the moon streaming in through a single window, but there was a faint crease marking the vague outline of a door etched into the wall. When she pushed against the edge of it, the section of wall swivelled open without much effort on her part.

Glancing backwards briefly, Rukia slipped into the next room and into pitch blackness when the door swung shut. She lifted one hand and willed a small orb of kidou into her hand. It flickered and she frowned slightly, taking a few steps forward. The room she had entered was small, barely bigger than Ichigo's closet, and completely empty from the look of things. It had probably been used for storage at some point in spite of it now being...

_Not_ empty.

Rukia had moved further to the left and the faint glow of kidou fell over a pale face. She started and would have flung the glowing ball at the figure had she not noticed it was the same spirit who had led her here in the first place. And then she noticed that it wasn't a spirit at all. It wasn't translucent, the skin had an unnatural shine to it, and the hair looked supiciously like a wig. As realistically as it was made, the 'girl' sitting on her knees in front of her was nothing more than a life-sized doll version of the spirit she'd encountered earlier.

Now Rukia knew what she had meant by 'substitute'. Why she'd be asked to 'kill' it was another story. More importantly, however, she had noticed something else when she'd taken another step closer to the doll. It was holding the pinwheel key she'd been looking for in its hands. Relief swept through her at having found it so quickly and she leaned down to take the key with her free hand. She dropped it seconds later when the doll latched onto her wrist and its head swivelled upwards at an unnatural angle, it's cold eyes meeting Rukia's.

Rukia jerked backwards, trying to free her arm from its vice-like grip, only succeeding in dragging the doll forward and making its head flop to one side in an eerie manner. It floundered awkwardly on the floor while it tried to get to its feet, but Rukia was already bringing her free hand around to fling the orb of kidou into its gut.

"No! Don't!" Something cold slammed into her back and knocked her off balance. Her attack missed the doll by a hair's breadth, fizzling out harmlessly against the wall and plunging the tiny room into darkness. She struggled against the spirit that had latched onto her back and started clawing viciously at the Shinigami's throat while shrieking "Murderer!" at her – it was all too easy for the doll to pitch forward and send all three of them tumbling to the ground.

The weight on Rukia's back vanished seconds before she hit the floor, her head cracking sharply against the wooden boards and leaving her dazed for several seconds. It was hard to tell when she couldn't see anything to begin with but she was certain her vision had gone blurry, and the urge to let herself drift off into unconsciousness was hard to ignore. She might not have if the doll that had knocked her over hadn't pinned her under its weight and started tearing furiously at her chest and stomach with its fingers, quickly shredding through part of her dress and lacerating the skin beneath.

Rukia jolted as pain tore through her and would have cried out if the second spirit hadn't reappeared and locked her hands around the Shinigami's throat. She thrashed against the two assailants, trying to knock the doll off of her by wildly kicking her legs and trying to fend of its attacks with one hand while the other was busy trying to pry the cold fingers from her neck. Her only reward in the attempt was three long, parallel gashes along the length of her arm instead of across her stomach and only a brief respite from being strangled before the hands clamped down even tighter than before.

Rukia had managed to steal a tiny gasp of a breath and she meant to use it.

"Hainawa..." She croaked out. A stream of jagged light erupted from her hands, illuminating the identical faces of the attacking spirit and the doll before the ropes of kidou wound around them and pinned their arms to their sides. The spirit's hands were torn from Rukia's throat and she toppled to the ground. As if mimicking her movements the doll tipped over and abruptly went still.

Rukia rolled over onto her side, coughing weakly as her head pounded and the room spun. She pressed her hands against her stomach and hissed at the sharp sting that jolted through each of her cuts, but the pain helped clear her head and keep her conscious. Blood began seeping through her fingers and she pressed harder. None of the wounds had gone very deep, but most of them were bleeding profusely. She wasn't sure she could heal them with kidou at this point and she was too exhausted to risk trying.

Ichigo was going to give her hell for this.

She had to take care of something else, first. Rukia struggled to her feet, hissing as each wrong movement pulled at the lacerations all over her torso and made her head throb. When she was finally vertical again, she snatched up the doll by the back of its kimono and dragged it to its feet. It was suprisingly light, considering how easily it had pinned her to the floor only moments ago.

The bound spirit lying on the floor suddenly began thrashing angrily, glaring daggers up at Rukia. "Stop! Don't!" She shrieked desperately, unable to do anything but struggle against her bindings. "Don't kill her! Don't kill her! Please! Not again... Please..." Her screams dissolved into whimpers and Rukia frowned in confusion. Hadn't she been the same spirit who'd asked her only a few minutes ago to get rid of the doll?

Whether against her wishes now or not, Rukia wasn't feeling in a particularly generous mood. The doll was dangerous and clearly the girl was too, and while she probably didn't have enough power to finish off the spirit the doll, in the end, was nothing more than wood and fabric. It only took a tiny spark of a Shakkahou spell to ignite the doll's dry hair and it quickly spread over the entire doll's body. In a few minutes it was little more than charcoal and ash, and Rukia extingushed the kidou flame before tossing the remants of the doll aside. It cracked into pieces on impact.

Rukia wasted no time in finding the pinwheel key in the fading light of the Hainawa spell that was still keeping the now docile spirit pinned and quickly left the room just as it broke completely. She stumbled back out into the tatami room and towards the second floor landing where the door leading out to the bridge, glancing back only briefly to make sure the spirit wasn't planning on following her and pausing. _Two_ girls – neither of them dolls – identical in appearance stood together at the far end of the tatami room. Wordlessly, each took the other's hand and both vanished together.

Now Rukia _really_ understood what the girl had meant by 'substitute'.

Rukia left the Kiryu house, closing the door behind her, and stepped out onto the bridge suspended between the two houses, testing the railing before allowing herself to lean against it and unleashed a heavy, shuddering breath. Ichigo hadn't returned yet, but she was still bleeding badly enough that she needed to patch herself up a little first before going to look for him. She'd left her first aid kit with Karin and Yuzu back at the tree though the skirt of her dress was long enough to tear into decent bandages. It would have to do for the time being.

After tearing off nearly half of her skirt, ripping the fabric into strips, and hastily wrapping her torso and injured arm in the make-shift bandages, Rukia stepped into the Tachibana house and began searching for Ichigo.

Ichigo stayed frozen for several moments after the woman's presence had completely vanished before he let himself breathe again. It was strange that she'd suddenly given up on pursuing him right when she had him cornered, but Ichigo wasn't about to complain. The demon was gone and, if he had guessed right, he was in the same room as the pinwheel key he was looking for. Now it was just a matter of finding it.

Ichigo overturned the entire room. He dug through the drawers of the writing desk and the few kimono boxes in the room, flipped over the tatami mats, and practically tore apart the lone bookshelf but came up empty handed. He'd even pulled the desk out to see if Itsuki had maybe hidden it behind the desk, but still found nothing. If the key was in this room, the kid had hidden it but good, and it was probably out of neccessity. He didn't want anyone finding out what he was up to, after all, which was probably why he kept that other key...

An idea occurred to Ichigo and he went back to the pile of books he'd left lying on the floor, sorting through them until he found one that looked familiar. It was a bound journal like the one they'd found in the storehouse and, just as he suspected, when he flipped through the pages he found a pinwheel key tucked inside.

"Finally," he grumbled, pocketing the key before leaving Itsuki's room.

Ichigo didn't bother being cautious since the only spirit he was concerned about encountering was the woman in the bloodstained kimono, and he would more than likely sense her long before he actually saw her. At this point, he was much more concerned about finding the exit after getting himself turned around so many times and being forced to aimlessly run for his life.

Absently, he began flipping through the journal as he walked, half-hoping to find some kind of map inside even as he realized it would be pretty ridiculous for Itsuki to keep a map of his own house. Without noticing, he slowed to a halt as one entry in particular caught his attention.

_ The Ritual is coming up soon. Mutsuki is too weak to run away, and there is no way I can carry him. He said he'll forgive me no matter what happens. He does not want Sae and Yae to suffer either. _

_ I promised him that I would help Sae and Yae escape after the ritual. Mutsuki will remain here as a butterfly. I plan to remain here in the village with him too... _

Something tightened in Ichigo's chest that made it difficult for him to breathe. He recalled the strange dreams he'd had the night before of Itsuki's life – of time spent with his twin sibling and younger sister, of his friends Sae and Yae, and then...

_Will Mutsuki ever be able to forgive me? _

_ I could not make him into a butterfly. _

_ I could not become one with him. _

_ It is all my fault. _

_ Please forgive me... _

He had strangled Mutsuki, all for the sake of saving the village, enabling Sae to live, and sparing Yae the pain of killing her sister. He had killed his own brother, but he failed. He even failed to help Sae escape the village and, burdened with shame and guilt, had taken his own life. Even then he still hadn't been able to meet with Mutsuki again and apologize for everything...

Ichigo shook his head to clear out the mental images from it and frowned. There was no way in _hell_ he was going to let these demons make his sisters go through something like that. In fact, the first thing he was going to do once they were all back in Karakura was get his Shinigami badge, come back, and tear the whole place apart himself if Soul Society didn't beat him to it. Too many people had died in this place already, and Yuzu and Karin had almost been among them.

And speaking of Soul Society, he planned to share a few choice words with them for managing to overlook a _village full of demons_ for who knew how long.

Ichigo started moving again and found his way back to the outdoor bridge fairly quickly, somehow knowing which corridors to take. His mind wandered back to the encounter with the woman covered in blood and started to feel uneasy again. It hadn't really bothered him at the time when she abruptly gave up pursuing him, but now he couldn't help but wonder why. Even after trying to convince himself it didn't matter _why_ he only felt all the more uneasy. He did his best to shrug it off until he reached the bridge and found the door to the Kiryu house shut and his anxiety grew.

It took a lot more concentration and effort than it ordinarily would have but, being in the same house, it wasn't too difficult to locate Rukia's blood red spirit ribbons. She was close by, they both had found the last two pinwheel keys, and yet the sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach only grew more intense.

And then Rukia's spirit ribbons evaporated like smoke, curling into nothingness.

_The ritual taking place in this village... _

_it cannot even be spoken about... _

_the ritual... _

_throwing one of the twins... _

_into the Land of the Dead... _

_Seijiro Makabe_

A/N: We're almost at the end! Exciting, no?

As always, thanks to everyone who reviewed! It might sound cheesy or cliché and I've probably said it more than once, but this story really wouldn't have gotten so far without you guys. Whenever I hit a block or a rough patch, rereading through all the reviews really motivated me to keep going and not give up on this story even when I was starting to feel insecure about my writing. Thanks again, guys!


	12. Chapter Twelve

Obligatory Author's Note: Guh, sorry about the super long wait! The list of excuses is longer than I care to actually go over, but it basically goes busy busy sick busy busy lazy depressed busy sick busy. Hopefully it's worth the wait! Oh, and don't forget to join Operation Zero on Facebook if you're interested in getting the Wii remake of Fatal Frame II released in North America. There's a link to it on my profile page.

**The Village**

**Chapter Twelve**

_ "The Malice coming from the X is getting stronger. I've searched, and there is no record of it getting this strong in the past. Recently, poor harvests and deaths have begun to increase. The time of repentance for Tachibana's failure to perform the ritual is drawing near. Half of the Mourners were driven mad by the Malice and jumped into the X. We must prepare more Mourners, we'll use the sinners. If we don't do something, the X will overflow in a few years. I must use my daughters in the ritual. Sae and Yae must be cleansed. For the village!"_

_Ryokan Kurosawa_

Ichigo felt like the floor had caved in beneath his feet. It didn't stop him from sprinting full-out through corridor after corridor in the direction he'd last felt Rukia's reiatsu, prepared to tear apart any doors or walls that happened to get in his way.

She wasn't dead. Her spirit ribbons vanishing didn't mean anything. It was the same thing that had happened before with his sisters, and they had both turned out to be fine. It was just something blocking his senses, his exhaustion, his diminished reiatsu, _her_ diminished reiatsu. She couldn't be dead. She was _Rukia_ for crying out loud! Even when a hole had been punched straight through her she was still fine.

The stench of blood grew thick in the air once again, and all of Ichigo's self-assurances began to weaken. They broke apart completely when he came across the collapsed shinigami and a pale spirit standing over her still form. Now he knew where the woman in the bloodstained kimono had gone.

Ichigo hurried forward to put himself between the demon and Rukia even though the damage had already been done. Even standing right beside her he couldn't feel even the faintest glimmer of Rukia's reiatsu. He shouldn't have suggested they split up, they should've met back up at the tree, _he should have gotten here sooner_.

"Damn you!" He dove towards the spirit, drawing back his fist. He knew this was an enemy he probably couldn't fight – not like the other demons they'd encountered in the village – but anger overrode his sense. He couldn't heal people. He couldn't even protect them properly. All he could do was fight, and hope that it would somehow do _something_ that would make everything right again.

Ichigo's fist punched through empty air, the woman vanishing and reappearing several feet away. It wasn't until then that he noticed something seemed different about her. Some of the mania had vanished from her eyes – eyes that were still fixated on Rukia and forming an unreadable expression – and the chilling smirk was gone. She stood frozen for several seconds as though having an internal debate before her gaze drifted past both the shinigami to something only she could see.

"Nee-san," she murmured. The malicious aura surrounding her diminished significantly until it – and she – vanished without a trace.

Ichigo wasted no more time in dropping to Rukia's side – the camera dropping to the ground beside him – and his chest tightened when he saw the make-shift bandages wrapped around her stomach, saturated in blood, and how pale her skin had gotten. He pressed shaky fingers to her neck, swallowing hard when he felt how cold she was, and checked her vein for a pulse. He didn't find one.

"Damn it, Rukia!" He slammed his fist into the floor. "I told you! I... damn it!"

For several seconds, it felt as though his heart had stopped right along with hers and the world had ground to a halt beneath his feet. His eyes stung, his breath caught in his throat, his entire body felt so heavy. They'd been so close to finally escaping. She had promised she wasn't going to get herself killed. Karin and Yuzu were waiting for them. What was he even supposed to say to them?

"You're not going to die, do you hear me?!" Ichigo rolled Rukia over onto her back, kneeled over her still form, and started compressing her chest. He had no idea how similar a gigai was to a human body or if it would even work, but he had to try. "You're not allowed to die until after I've given you hell for this! You're not allowed to die _ever_, understand?! I mean, what the hell kind of shinigami gets killed by a ghost?!" Ichigo panted between compressions, trying to shove past his panic with anger.

He tried to ignore the excess blood soaking through her bandages with each movement, staining his hands and seeping between his fingers. He paused after a minute, pressing his fingers against her throat and still finding nothing. No pulse. No rising and falling of her chest. No life. Ichigo gritted his teeth and punched the floor in his frustration. He wasn't going to give up that easily. His hands moved to tilt her head back, pinch her nose shut, and open her jaw to breathe air into her lungs.

Ichigo spent the next few minutes alternating between compressing her chest, checking her pulse, and breathing for her, muttering curses and empty threats between each action when she continuously failed to respond to his attempt at resuscitation. Each time his fingers – now slick with her blood – brushed over the cold skin of her throat and felt no pulse of life, the panic and worry welling in his chest grew until it threatened to suffocate him. He forced himself to press on, convincing himself over and over again that she only needed one more push to start breathing again.

Nothing was working.

Gasping from the effort and the weight of anguish, Ichigo sat back on his knees and ran his fingers roughly through his hair in frustration, smearing streaks of blood through his orange hair. There had to be something he could do. There had to be something he was forgetting about that would bring her back. There _had_ to be. He wracked his brain for answers, but none came to him. He'd already tried everything he knew to do when a regular human wasn't breathing and their heart had stopped beating, and he didn't know the first thing about healing kidou. All he could have done was gotten to her sooner, before she'd gotten hurt, and prevented it from happening in the first place; but it was far too late for that.

_"Their attacks strike the soul, not the body."_

Rukia's words came back to him and it felt as though a thick, hazy fog had lifted in his mind and a weight had dropped off his shoulders. Her assailant had been a demon, and she wasn't an ordinary human. She was a shinigami wearing a faux body, and he could have kicked himself for not thinking of it before. There wasn't anything wrong with her – not physically at least – and trying to treat her like an ordinary human with ordinary injuries had been a waste of his time. It didn't bring him any closer to finding a way to wake her up, but it brought him closer to the hope that she _could_ be woken up.

Ichigo took a deep, shuddering breath to calm himself and closed his eyes in order to better focus his senses. He reached out, searching carefully for the tiniest glimmer of Rukia's reiatsu and shoving down his doubts and concerns when he didn't immediately feel anything. He shifted closer to her, taking one of her frigid hands between his hoping the contact would make it easier to find any spark of life that remained in her. When he continued to find nothing he reminded himself of the many other reasons he would have trouble sensing her to keep himself calm and hopeful.

Letting out another deep breath, he brought his hands – and hers – to his face and rested his forehead against her knuckles. "C'mon, Rukia. I know you're still in there somewhere," He said quietly, pushing his diminished senses to their limits. For a moment it felt as though he were slowly tipping forward into a dark, empty, bottomless pit, straining to reach out as far as he could until he felt the edge of his senses brush against something familiar. Without a seconds hesitation he dived further in, wrapping around it, and tugged it back towards him with so much force it felt like the air had been sucked from his lungs.

Ichigo's eyes snapped open and Rukia inhaled sharply, her back arching off the ground severely from the effort before she went still again. He had no idea what exactly he'd done, but he didn't really care at the moment. He could already feel her hand beginning to grow warm again and when he looked carefully he could see her chest rising and falling with slow, shallow breaths. Her pulse was weak when he checked it, but at least it was there this time. The tension flooded out of him along with a heavy sigh of relief and his grip on her hand tightened briefly while he reassured himself that the signs of life hadn't been his imagination.

As fast as the anxiety left him, irritation was quick to replace it. "I wish you would stop making me worry about you," he grumbled, though the glare he cast down at her was half-hearted at best. "Are you listening? Can you hear me?" He let go of her hand to give her shoulders a light shake, but she didn't respond. "Of course you won't even wake up and give me some piece of mind," Ichigo muttered under his breath before his gaze drifted back to the bloody, make-shift bandages wrapped around her stomach. Yuzu and Karin would be able to take care of that once he got her back to the tree.

Scooping her up carefully so as not to jostle her and potentially exacerbate her injuries, Ichigo quickly found the stairs, made his way to one of the exterior doors, and felt only a tinge of mild concern when it opened with little effort, and gave no thought to how he had so easily found his way out of the Tachibana house. Surprisingly, he didn't have to stop at all on the way back to the hollow tree. Nothing got in their way, demon or otherwise, and it was more unsettling than anything. They had all the keys and they were about to escape. Why were the demons giving up now? Or were they already waiting to ambush them at the shrine?

It didn't occur to Ichigo until just then that they wouldn't stand a chance in this state. Rukia was unconscious, Yuzu was barely functional, Karin could only do so much with physical power alone, and Ichigo was certain the camera was running dangerously low on film. And even if they did wait until Rukia regained consciousness that wouldn't change how much she had already exhausted herself to the point that using kidou would become dangerous for her.

Ichigo shook his head lightly and pressed onward. He couldn't think about that right now. He had to focus on getting back to his sisters. Once Rukia woke up, they would think of something. Somehow or another they would pull through. And then Ichigo would swear off camping for the rest of his life. He'd also learn to start trusting those unsettled feelings of his.

Everything was as they left it when Ichigo crossed the threshold into the old tree. Rukia's bag was still lying open on the floor like a gutted fish with packets of food and medical supplies spilling out onto the floor. The flickering candles were casting ominous shadows against the walls, and the pinwheels were slowly spinning in the faint breeze swirling through the room. The blankets were still pooled on the floor where they'd been left.

Karin and Yuzu were gone.

Karin's eyes drifted open, the dim light of the flickering candles enough to make her eyes sting and head pound. She heaved herself into a sitting position when a coughing fit struck her so hard she tasted bile. Her lungs felt stretched with every breath she took, as though the wind had been knocked out of her, and her head throbbed. Tears stung in her eyes, only partly from the pain but mostly from the lingering memory of searching through a ravine for her missing sister and coming up empty-handed.

_Dream_, she told herself once some of the fog had lifted from her mind. _It was a dream about someone else's memory. Not mine. _Karin coughed and gingerly rubbed at her sore throat, wincing when her fingers made contact with the sore flesh. It took several seconds for her to remember that she was in pain because her twin had attacked her and very nearly throttled the life out of her with her bare hands.

A thrill of panic shot up her spine as realization began to set in. "Yuzu," she choked out, looking around for any sign of her sister. A heavy weight settled in her stomach when she realized that she was alone in the hollow tree.

"No..." Karin climbed to her feet and had to catch herself on the wall when the room spun. She let her eyes slip shut, allowing herself a few moments to let the dizzy spell pass, before steadying herself again. She had to find Yuzu.

Karin's stomach twisted sharply and lurched upwards when she staggered forward, but she pressed onward nonetheless. Yuzu already had at least a few minutes head start on her. Even though she knew the demons wanted them both and likely wouldn't do anything to her sister – _yet –_ the dream she'd had made her fear for the worst. If they took Sae to that place and grew too impatient waiting for her to return...

_Yuzu_, she corrected herself sharply. She shook her head in spite of the throbbing pain to clear the thoughts away. The pain made it easier to focus.

Once outside the tree Karin stumbled into a run. There was no sign of Yuzu anywhere, but she already knew exactly where to go. The bits and pieces of Yae's memories seeping into her mind told her enough to know she needed to go back to the big house across the bridge where she and her sister had been held captive in a cell. But this time she wouldn't be in the cell. She would be led by veiled priests through the underground path towards the abyss where the ritual was supposed to take place.

And if she didn't make it in time, they would hang her sister from the shinto gate until she stopped breathing and then throw her into the abyss.

It was this thought that encouraged Karin's unsteady limbs to move faster, pushed forward by nothing but pure adrenaline. She hadn't thought about what Ichigo or Rukia might think when they came back and found the old tree empty. Even if they had crossed her mind she wouldn't have bothered wasting time waiting for them or scribbling out a note before leaving while Yuzu slipped further and further away. Karin felt certain that if she didn't chase after Yuzu _now _she might lose her forever.

Karin pushed herself until her lungs burned and the pounding in her head was so fierce she couldn't hear anything else. Her body felt like it was made of lead and she was forcing it through a thick pool of molasses with every step. Whatever else the spirit possessing Yuzu had done to Karin, it had taken a massive toll on her. And while thinking of the danger her sister was in right now helped her keep moving in spite of her exhaustion, it could only get her so far.

She stumbled and fell to the ground when she stepped out of the forest path and crossed over the stream flowing through the village. Every bone and muscle in her body pleaded with her to be still, close her eyes, and pass back into unconsciousness. She coughed weakly into ground, kicking up a small cloud of dirt, and tried to push herself up by her arms. It took all the effort she had just to bring herself to her knees. Her vision was swimming too much for her to push herself any further than that.

"I can't stop... Yuzu..." she groaned, squeezing her eyes shut and clutching at her throbbing head.

It would be so easy to tell herself she'd tried her best, that she couldn't possibly go any further, and to let herself collapse to the ground and allow sleep to take her. It would be easy to let Ichigo take care of everything and believe he would find and save Yuzu in time whether she passed out now or not. Her head was growing too heavy to support, keeping her eyes open was too much effort, her legs were too weak to keep carrying her, and everything hurt so badly...

"Stand up."

Karin wasn't certain whether the stern voice had been real or whether it was some part of her own mind still pushing her even while the rest of it begged for unconsciousness. She forced her eyes to open and through her hazy vision swore she saw the hazy outline of a girl standing over her. She could only just make out short black hair, a brown shirt and a white skirt, and an outstretched hand. Something in Karin felt a vague sense of familiarity towards the girl and after a few seconds of struggling allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. The girl was gone again before Karin even had time to steady herself, leaving her to wonder if she even existed at all.

Nothing felt different. She was still exhausted and in pain, and each step felt like an eternity. But the urge to surrender had fallen away completely. Taking a deep breath to bolster herself, Karin started forward again.

Hours must have passed while she all but dragged herself back to the long bridge leading across the lake to the Kurosawa house. A few veiled priests waited for her at the entrance, bowing their heads to her as she passed before they vanished into thin air. Of course they were welcoming her _now_. They _needed_ her, and maybe they really believed she was here to perform their demented ritual. It didn't matter what they thought, as long as she could get to Yuzu before they grew impatient and strung her up.

Karin navigated the mansion as easily as if she'd lived in it her entire life and had every room and corridor committed to memory. She knew where she would find Yuzu. She knew she only needed to go through the ceremony master's room, down the steps on the _left_ side (her twin was meant to take the path on the _right_, the younger of the twins always did) and she would emerge in a garden with two bridges, leading to two doors that could only be open by the twins because they had to be opened at the same moment. She was at a momentary loss when she reached the end of the twin bridges. Her twin had already gone in ahead of her. She couldn't open it by herself.

"You've finally come for me." Karin was too tired to be surprised by the voice and she turned towards the bridge opposite of her to see who had spoken. For a long moment she swore it was Yuzu she saw standing across from her, but after blinking away the illusion she realized it was the woman in the white kimono. Only now she was no longer stained with blood.

"Let's go together this time." Sae stepped up to the door and Karin heard both doors unlock. She moved inside, not wasting the chance she was given.

She was close now, but she still had a long walk ahead of her. The caves below the mansion were extensive and it would still be a while yet before she reached the abyss where Yuzu was waiting for her to save her, and Sae was waiting to be killed by her. It terrified her that, at the moment, Yae had ingrained herself so deeply into Karin that she wasn't sure which she would do.

He should have stayed.

Ichigo fell to his knees, tightening his grip on Rukia to keep himself from dropping her, as fear set in. He should have stayed. He should have made Rukia stay. He should have done _something_ differently because now his sisters were missing and Rukia was badly hurt.

His first instinct was to turn the village upside down looking for them, but he had no idea what to do with the injured shinigami. He couldn't bring her with him. Unconscious and weakened as she was, it would only put her in danger and he couldn't defend them both while he had to carry her around. At the same time he couldn't leave her by herself in her condition. He had no idea whether or not she would relapse and stop breathing again while he was gone, and knowing now that this place wasn't as safe as he first thought it was made him all the more reluctant. But he also had no idea was state Yuzu and Karin were in, or why they left in the first place. He needed to find them before something happened to them – if it hadn't already.

"Damn it!" If he'd only brought Kon along he would have been able to leave him here to watch over Rukia. She wouldn't have been hurt in the first place if either of them still had access to his Shinigami form, and they would have escaped the village hours ago.

Ichigo stiffened when a chill air suddenly blanketed the room, though it didn't have the unnatural sting given off by the demons wandering the village, or even the ordinary bite of a winter day. It had familiarity to it that put him at ease. He felt as though time were slowing to a halt and when he saw the pinwheels slowing to a halt and the flickering of the candles grow still he knew it wasn't his imagination.

"Kurosaki Ichigo." Ichigo looked up from Rukia's prone form at the stern, feminine voice.

A pale complected woman stood over them, dressed in a white furisode kimono with a light lavender darari obi wrapped around her waist that was tied into a large bow. Her long, straight hair was such a pale shade of blue he almost mistook it for white, and her eyes were only a few shades darker. A white, icy mist swirled gently around her form and the familiarity he felt became clear. He'd never seen her in this form before, but it didn't take a genius to realize who she must have been.

"Shirayuki?"

"Sode no Shirayuki," she corrected him in a tone eerily similar to that of Rukia's older brother. "Yes. I am Rukia's zanpakuto." Panic gripped him. His own zanpakuto had only ever manifested of his own free will when Ichigo had been on the brink of death, and it made him all the more anxious about the situation. Sode no Shirayuki must have read into his expression, because she was quick to add, "Kuchiki Rukia is in no danger. She is only resting now. I believe you have other matters to attend to."

Ichigo let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding in. But even knowing that she wasn't in any danger of relapsing, he still felt uneasy. "I... I can't just leave her here. This place isn't safe, Yuzu and Karin were..."

Sode no Shirayuki lifted her hand to silence him. "There is no danger here. It is not my wielder that the spirits are interested in. Now go, before I _force_ you to go." Her gaze and tone had both sharpened severely as she spoke and Ichigo knew he didn't have much of a choice. He took a moment to reassure himself that Rukia would still be breathing when he returned and finally nodded in resolution.

After carefully laying the petite Shinigami down on her rabbit print blanket, he pressed the pinwheel keys he'd be carrying into her palm and stood. "I'll be back soon," he said to both of them, and was already turning to leave when Sode no Shirayuki winked out of existence and time jolted back into its usual pace.

When Ichigo had first discovered that Yuzu and Karin were missing he wasn't sure where to even begin looking for them, but now it suddenly seemed obvious. That big house across the bridge was where they had been taken before and it was most likely where they would be taken again. He only hoped they were back in the cell he'd first found them in – otherwise he'd have no choice but to sweep through the entire mansion for them, and it was easily the biggest house in the village.

It was somewhat eerie that, as he quickly made his way to the Kurosawa house, a heavy silence seemed to hang in the air. He didn't see a single spirit, nothing tried to attack him, and there was a sharp tension in the air as if the whole village was holding its breath. The villagers always stayed inside when the ritual was being performed, something he suspected might be Itsuki told him, and he ran faster.

It creeped him out that a spirit from the village had inexplicably latched onto him, just as one had seemed to latch onto Yuzu. It was already bad enough that he had a hollow locked inside him that was trying to overthrow him, but for the time being having Itsuki hanging around him was useful. When he'd made his way back into the Kurosawa house and started back towards the cell his sisters had first been held captive, something told him that wasn't quite right. They wouldn't be there. It was too close to the time of the ritual. They would be making their way underground.

Against his better judgment, Ichigo relaxed his control and let the force pulling him lead him through the mansion. He was sure it was the same pull that helped him find his way through the Tachibana house when he was being chased by the spirit in the bloody kimono and again when he was trying to find his way out. He was sure enough about it that he believed it would help him find his sisters. If it wasn't already too late.

He didn't get far before he regretted his decision. He had stepped into an altar room with shelves packed full of glowing red lanterns lining the walls – the ceremony master room – when the temperature plummeted and a cloaked man appeared before him, facing the opposite direction. Ichigo froze for a moment until he realized it wasn't _his_ fear pumping through him, but Itsuki's. Whoever this man was – Ryokan Kurosawa, the last ceremony master, Yae and Sae's father, a Remaining – he was someone to be feared. That's what the voice told him, anyway.

Right now he was the poor bastard standing between him and his little sisters.

Ichigo tensed when the man slowly turned towards him and he was already raising the camera when the man's once ordinary face suddenly rotted down to nothing but a skull with sunken, glowing eyes staring out at him. He lunged faster than Ichigo expected and startled him into quickly sidestepping the assault rather than taking a shot. When he turned to correct his error the spirit had already vanished, though the heavy chill in the air meant he hadn't simply given up and left.

"They were born for this purpose," a deep, almost raspy, voice that made the flickering light of the lanterns seem to shudder and threaten to go out completely echoed through the room. "You are a failure. You have no right to interfere."

Ichigo heard a sharp, rattling clang just behind him and dodged the metal staff that had been swung at his head with only a second to spare. He spun and raised his camera again, managing a shot at the veiled priest that had assaulted him but doing nothing more than knocking the spirit back a few steps. A second priest manifested beside the first and both began slowly advancing on the shinigami, the metal rings on their staffs clattering together sharply with each step them took. It didn't take long for him to realize they were trying to herd him in a specific direction and it took even less time for him to realize why. Ichigo turned, coming nearly face to face with the ceremony master and instinctively kneed the spirit in the gut rather than using the camera. It felt like he'd rammed his knee into a wall of protruding icicles.

Ichigo staggered backward, nearly toppling over when he put his weight on his throbbing, numb leg, and was rewarded a second later with a metal staff slamming down on one of his shoulders. Ichigo was left awkwardly stumbling away from the spirits, clutching his arm and all but dragging his foot. They all vanished once more and Ichigo cursed under his breath.

Enough was enough.

He needed to calm down and focus. His anger and desperation to get to his sisters were starting to make him flail around like an idiot, and he couldn't win like this. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath and wait for some of the pinpricks of icy pain digging into his knee to subside, while surveying the room for any sign of the spirits. He didn't have to wait long.

The veiled priests appeared again, approaching slowly as they had before. Ichigo didn't waste anytime turning his back to them, raising the camera, and taking a shot at the spirit he knew would be standing behind him. He recoiled backwards and Ichigo continued mashing the shutter button as fast as the film would load. He didn't get hit this time when the veiled priests came up behind him and swung at him. They both collapsed and vanished after only a couple of shots. Only the ceremony master was left now.

Ichigo hobbled backwards to gain some distance from the advancing spirit while he waited for the next exposure to load. "They were born for this purpose," the spirit insisted again. "The ritual must go on, for the village!"

"You're not stopping me you bastard!" Ichigo's anger rose and he lifted the camera again. A hollow pit of frustration carved out a hole in his stomach when it clicked uselessly. The film was gone. "Damn it!" He tossed it carelessly to the ground in his aggravation and took up a fighting stance.

Ichigo wasn't sure how he was supposed to punch a ghost to death, but it was the only thing left to try. He didn't have access to his zanpakuto, he couldn't use kidou like Rukia did, and he didn't have any other special powers like Chad, Orihime, or Uryuu. And physically attacking the demon would hurt like hell, and he would only be able to use his fists if he still wanted to be able to walk afterward. But he had to do _something_.

When the ceremony master came within striking distance and began to lunge forward, Ichigo's fist shot out and caught him square in the jaw. He bit back a yelp. The blow had forced the spirit's head to snap backwards at an extremely unnatural angle and the spirit fell back. The blow had also – if the ragged waves of ice and fire tearing up and down his arm were anything to go by – broken every single bone in Ichigo's hand. He couldn't even so much as flex his fingers to test whether or not his hand was shattered or if it only felt like it had been shattered.

The spirit had collapsed under the blow, but it had not vanished and Ichigo didn't know if any amount of pummeling would do the trick. But it was down for the moment and running was starting to seem like a better and better idea. He paused only a moment, debated whether to bring along the discarded camera but quickly decided to leave it behind. Even if by some random chance he came across any more film he wouldn't stop to take the time to load the camera. A sense of urgency had overtaken him and he wasn't going to ignore it with the lives of his sisters at stake.

So he ran, and the spirit didn't pursue him or block his path.

Ichigo hurried down the steps on the left side of the room – both stairs led to the same place, but it was important that he take the left side – and sprinted down the long corridor as fast as his numb leg would allow. The corridor led to another set of stairs leading back up to an enclosed courtyard with two bridges running parallel to each other with an overgrown, untended garden between the two. He took the left side again – it _was_ important! - and hurried to the end

He almost didn't see the translucent figure standing at the end of the bridge on the opposite side. When he did he froze in anticipation of another fight, but the voice urged him forward. It was okay. That spirit wasn't there to fight. He wanted to save Yae and Sae as well. He was needed to open the door.

"Mutsuki," Ichigo muttered. He quickly reigned in Itsuki, realizing he'd given him a little more control than he should have. While he did trust that the boy wanted to help him save his sisters, it was still _his_ body.

_"That's up for debate, King,"_ a familiar voice he hadn't heard lately cackled from deep within the dark recesses of his soul. Ichigo scowled and pushed both the voices aside completely. He knew exactly where he was going now – just through the door, into the rope shrine, through the underground tunnel, everything from this point on was completely straight-forward – and he didn't need any further direction.

Once he reached the narrow, underground tunnel he sprinted full out. He knew he was close and he also knew that he was almost out of time. He hadn't come across either of his sisters yet, couldn't hear the chanting of the priests that would be accompanying them. He was too far behind. He had to catch up. Once they reached the abyss it wouldn't be long until the ceremony started. He already knew that Yuzu was possessed to the point she probably wouldn't hesitate to go through with it. He had no idea what state Karin was in.

He encountered more of the mourners that had nearly taken his eyes as he ran, but he didn't pay them any mind. None of them could keep up with him, and the few that got in his way were roughly elbowed aside. By the time he reached the end of the tunnel, both of Ichigo's arms were stinging bitterly with cold and he was panting so hard he was tasting bile.

But he couldn't stop to rest. He only needed to cross the candlelit cavern and pass through the shinto gate leading down to the abyss. He could hear the soft chanting now and his heart pounded faster. They hadn't started yet. There was still time to save them. Ichigo nearly tumbled down the stone steps in his rush to reach his sisters.

Yuzu and Karin stood at the edge of the abyss, facing each other, speaking words he couldn't hear over the constant chanting. He ran forward, too short of breath to call out to them, and didn't even see the metal staff arcing towards him until it caught his cheek and knocked him onto his side. He ignored the sharp pain blooming across his face and was scrambling to his feet in moments when a foot stomped on his back and forced him face-first into the stone floor.

Ichigo tried to pull himself free, but countless hands were pulling at him, holding him down with such force he thought his ribs might crack. From his vantage point on the ground he could make out Yuzu lying down on the altar in front of the gaping abyss. He saw Karin move towards her. He felt his heart stop.

Drawing in as much breath as he could manage, he screamed out their names at the top of his lungs, struggling violently against his captors. He didn't come all this way just to fail. He wasn't going to watch Karin kill Yuzu. He couldn't let this happen! One of the demons stepped on the back of his head, and he didn't get a chance to see whether his yelling had any effect.

Karin finished her descent into the lowest cave beneath the village. She paused, breath caught in her throat, when she saw a familiar figure standing before her in a massive cave devoid of anything save for a single shinto gate, a stone altar, and a massive, rectangular hole carved into the earth. Yuzu stood with her back to the abyss, staring absently at the floor. She was still alive. She wasn't too late. She had waited for her.

Karin staggered forward towards her twin and was stopped once again the moment she crossed through the red gate standing between them. In an instant, the cavern was filled with veiled priests standing to either side of the gates in several rows. She was fearful for a moment until she realized that none of them were moving towards her to attack, or even looking in her direction. Of course they wouldn't attack her now. She was right where they wanted her now. They were simply waiting for her to begin the ritual.

"I knew you would come for me." She spoke quietly, finally looking up to meet her twin's gaze. "I knew you would come if I waited. I've been waiting so long... it was so cold... so dark..." Her voice cracked and she hugged herself tightly while tears brimmed in her eyes. "You'll... you'll stay with me, won't you? Forever?"

"I promised, didn't I?" The words slipped out without Karin's permission. Whatever it took to make her sister stop looking so distraught, she would do. And if the priests began to suspect anything before she reached her...

Sae sniffled and wiped at her eyes. No, it was Yuzu. Or maybe it was right to say Sae, as she was the one making her sister do all of this. Either way, her twin's eyes had brightened and the weight bearing down on her shoulders lifted. She wasn't hurting so much anymore. Now there was only one thing left to do.

She approached the altar where Sae (or Yuzu. Maybe both?) was already moving to lay down. Yae – and Karin, she must still be there somewhere – swallowed thickly and fought back her own tears. This wasn't what she wanted. She never wanted to have to do this, but if it made her sister happy... if it would make up for leaving her behind... she would do anything.

"I didn't mean to leave you behind. I kept searching for you, but by the time I found my way back... I caused you so much pain. I'm so sorry!" A tear slid down her cheek and she wiped it away.

"You did come back, Yae. That's all that matters. I knew you would. I kept waiting because I knew... Now please. Kill me." Sae smiled up at her softly and Yae nodded.

"KARIN! YUZU!"

She hesitated only a moment at the familiar voice calling out names she thought she had heard before. But her sister was still waiting for her and she had waited long enough. It was time to end her suffering. Yae (Karin?) kneeled over Sae (or was her name Yuzu?) and locked her hands around her twin sister's neck.

"I'm sorry," Yae murmured. "This is probably going to hurt a lot, but only for a little while."

Sae closed her eyes and softly exhaled her last breath as Yae's hands began to tighten.

_Mio..._

_please, save yourself..._

_No matter what happens,_

_I'll forgive you..._

_Mayu Amakura_

A/N: And... another evil cliffhanger. But the good news is that there won't be such a long wait until the next (and final!) chapter.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Obligatory Author's Note: Last chapter, guys! Let's get to it!

**The Village**

**Chapter Thirteen**

_ "If I stay here, someday Yae will come back for me. Can I become a butterfly without her? If I could, I'd always be near the village, waiting. Waiting at the place we made our promise. She'll come. I know she will. "_

_Sae Kurosawa_

Karin awoke beside the stream where she and Yuzu had first made camp. Part of her dared to hope that everything she had been through had all been some bizarre dream and her sister would be right beside her when she looked. But Yuzu was not there. Instead, it was the dark haired woman in a white kimono who stood at her side. It only took a few seconds of scrutiny for Karin to realize it must have been Yae who was with her now, not Sae.

"I don't want to do this." Karin stood and glared into the older girl's eyes. She wasn't sure what this was – the inside of her mind, the inside of Yae's mind, or some kind of limbo – but she knew that somewhere, out in reality, she was still strangling the life out of her twin sister. "You can't _make_ me do this!"

Yae didn't waver or back down from Karin's gaze. "It doesn't matter what you want. And it..." her voice caught for a moment and Karin was too livid to wait for her to continue.

"The hell it _doesn't_! I'm not killing my sister and you can't make me!"

"Do you think _I_ wanted to kill my sister!?" Yae shouted back, her shoulders beginning to shake. "I wanted her to _live_, I wanted to live with her! I wanted to continue playing together, sharing our pain and happiness together! Do you think I wanted her to fall from the path the day we tried to escape together? Do you think I wanted her to die feeling as though she'd been abandoned? Do you think I wanted to lose my memory of everything, to be forced to continue living on without her? Everything that happened to me... I deserved all of it and _worse_."

Yae shuddered one last time before her posture straightened and she forced herself to regain her composure. "It doesn't matter what I want anymore. I left my sister here to die. She's suffered in pain and darkness and loneliness because of me. Because I cared about what _I_ wanted more than I cared about what she wanted. So now... This is what she wants. This is what I'll give her. Regardless of how you or I feel about it."

"It's murder," Karin hissed. "She's my sister."

"My sister too," she said. "And it isn't murder. Not really."

"Yes it is!"

"You're wrong."

"I'm not." Karin spat. "And why should I kill _my_ sister for the sake of _yours_? What even makes you think Yuzu wants what Sae wants?"

The skies flickered like a projection on a screen, showing Yuzu lying prone on the ground with Karin's hands wrapped around her neck. Her cheeks were still stained with tears, but she was smiling in content. She wasn't struggling against the grip on her throat. Karin felt a wave of nausea strike her and she turned away.

"She isn't fighting," Yae said.

"She can't help it! She has a psychopath in her head!"

"She's _not_ fighting. Not like you are. You are the only one resisting this."

Karin swallowed thickly. It couldn't be right. Yuzu wouldn't just lay down and die like this. It had to be a lie. "Whether she's fighting or not doesn't matter to me. It's still cold-blooded murder and nothing you say changes that. I won't kill her." She bit out.

"I thought that once, too, but it's not. Her body might cease to exist, but her spirit will live on alongside yours forever. It's a ritual to make two halves split apart at birth back into one whole person. Your sister won't physically be with you any longer, but you'll never be apart. You'll never have to be alone. A few moments of pain for a lifetime of _wholeness_. You'll never have to be like Sae was... or like me..."

Karin stormed straight up to Yae, clutching the front of her kimono in her hand so tightly it would have choked her were she not a spirit. The tears streaming down the ghost girl's face did nothing to evoke any sympathy. "That's _bullshit_," she spat, giving Yae a rough shake. "Maybe what you say is true. Maybe we really would become one person. But who that hell wants that!? How can you talk to someone who's not physically beside you anymore?! Or spend time with them, or laugh with them, or cry with them?! How _wouldn't_ that be lonely!?"

Karin shoved the girl away hard enough to knock her down to the ground. "And if Yuzu isn't fighting – if she's really accepting death – it's only because she thinks sacrificing herself will save the rest of us! Not because she wants to die, but because she wants us to live!" Hot tears began pouring out of her eyes and Yae dropped her gaze to the ground.

"I know someday we'll be apart. We'll live separate lives, maybe far away from each other. And I know we probably won't die together either. Maybe one of us will even die long before the other one does. But none of that matters. What matters is _now_, and even if we end up far apart, we'll still always be together. Because we're family."

The image in the sky faded away and began to quickly darken with the formation of billowing storm clouds that rumbled ominously. Yae began to look worried at the turn of events, but if Karin even noticed the change she didn't seem to care.

"I don't care if you and Sae feel differently. I don't care that you can't stand the thought of being separate from each other at all. I don't care that you're trying to atone for what you did in the past! Just because you and Sae and the villagers made mistakes, don't make _me_ and _my_ sister pay for them!"

Lightning crackled in the sky, tearing the forest apart, and it was the last thing Karin saw before the world shifted violently and she found herself kneeling over her sister with her hands locked around her throat. Yae was still inside of her, pushing her, keeping her body frozen even while she fought to tear away. Yuzu – no, it was definitely Sae – was beginning to look worried.

"Nee-san?" She choked out.

Karin dug deep inside of her self, straight into the depths of her last reserves of strength and will and she wrested back an inch of control. Her hands slackened and Yuzu gulped in a lungful of air, tears streaming down her cheeks. She wouldn't do this. She wouldn't!

"Get. The. Hell. _Out_. Of. My. Sister!" Karin tugged sharply at the well of power she felt in her and it exploded. The last thing she saw before everything went dark was the twin spirits flying out of her and Yuzu's bodies and sent tumbling into the abyss. Together. Just as they always wanted.

Ichigo wasn't sure what happened. One moment he was lying on the ground struggling against the pile of priests and mourners who had pinned him there, the next a flash of brilliant blue light filled the cavern and the weight holding him down vanished. He scrambled to his feet the moment he was able to, just in time to see the last of the veiled priests evaporating into the air like steam as the bright light faded away. Yuzu was still lying on the stone altar and Karin was slumped over her, neither of them moving.

"No..." Ichigo nearly tripped over his own feet in his rush to reach his sisters. Then he almost tripped because the ground was starting to shake. "Damn it, what _now_?" He growled. His arms still felt like useless blocks of ice, but he forced them to scoop up his unconscious sisters. They might as well have been made of solid lead for all the effort it took him just to lift the two girls, but he managed. They hadn't survived malicious demons and possession just to be killed by some falling rocks.

The trek back up the stairs and through the long, twisting tunnel running under the village was hard. Karin and Yuzu had very nearly slipped from his weak grasp more than once, he'd been knocked to his knees by the increasingly violent tremors so many times he wondered if it wouldn't be faster to crawl, and the dirt being kicked up by the rumbling was starting to make it hard to breathe. He stopped when a pile of rubble blocking one of the other connecting tunnels collapsed and sent large rocks tumbling into his path.

It was the passageway into the Osaka house where he and Rukia had found a pinwheel key. He climbed into it, slipping on the rocks a few times, and hurried up the narrow staircase leading into the house. They were at the surface. They were safe. He breathed deeply in relief, coughing on a few particles of dirt that he'd inhaled, and finally let himself rest.

Ichigo carefully set Yuzu and Karin down so they were leaning against the wall and looked them over. Bruises were already beginning to form around the older twin's neck, but her breathing was steady and her pulse was strong, if a little fluttery. Karin also seemed to have matching bruises around her neck but was in a slightly better state then her sister. They would both be all right. They were alive. They were just exhausted.

But, as much as he wanted to, Ichigo couldn't let them sleep. He had reached his limit and knew he wouldn't be able to carry them any further. And he couldn't wait for them to wake up on their own either, because Rukia was still waiting for them and he'd rather get out of the village as soon as they possibly could.

"Hey. Yuzu, Karin," he called out to them, giving them both a firm, but gentle, shake.

The twin sisters jolted to alertness when they both felt a hand on their shoulder and were hit by a tidal wave of relief when they saw it was Ichigo standing before them. Even exhausted to the point of collapse they probably would have found enough energy to leap up and cling to him if he hadn't dropped to his knees and pulled them both into a hug.

After a moment Karin pulled away from her brother roughly, and clung to her twin sister instead. She managed to choke out between haggard breaths, "Yuzu... I'm sorry... are you... are you okay?"

Fresh tears were still streaming from the older twin's eyes and she'd begun coughing harshly between each breath she swallowed. She still managed to nod and turned to cling to her sister for dear life. "It wasn't you," she whimpered when she'd finally begun to catch her breath. "I know... it wasn't you... Karin. You saved me."

Ichigo was oddly quiet and tense at first, as though he couldn't quite decide whether to start lecturing them for making him worry, laugh in relief that they were both okay, or just break down completely right then and there. In the end, he held his sisters for several long moments, reassuring himself they were both still alive, before he pulled away.

"Let's get the hell out of here and go home."

Ichigo staggered to his feet and pulled Yuzu and Karin up with them. He couldn't carry them, but he let them cling to his arms for support as they began the long walk back to the old tree. Every step was exhausting, and his sisters grips on his still icy, numb hands were agonizing. He barely noticed. For now he was with his family and they were safe and whole and that was all that mattered.

Both of his sisters were silent during the entire trek and had grown despondent, and he realized there were still plenty of things to worry about. They might have come out of the situation with only a few bumps and bruises, but now that the adrenaline was wearing off and the danger was nearly past, what would all this do to their mental states?

"Ichi-nii?"

Ichigo turned his head slightly. It was Karin who had finally spoken up after several minutes of unnerving silence. He hummed slightly in acknowledgment, ignoring the daggers of pain that shot up his arm when he squeezed her hand gently.

"Remind me to punch goat-chin in the face when we get home."

Her voice shook from the effort of trying to sound light-hearted. He'd never felt more like crying. Was she really trying to reassure _him _and cheer him up after everything she'd had to go through? It wasn't hard to see in her eyes how much she'd been effected by everything that happened. He wanted to call her out on her pathetic acting and tell her to worry about _herself_ and maybe complain a bit about being surrounded by idiots who wouldn't take care of themselves because they were too busy worrying about _him_.

Instead, he scowled and played along. "Tch, get in line."

"I'm _first_ in line. I already called it before you."

"Yeah, but I'm older."

"But I'm _smarter_."

It did make him feel better to banter back and forth with her, and it seemed to lift her mood as he hoped it would. But Yuzu still remained quiet and stony-faced even when her sister prodded her to join in. After a while, all three of them fell back into silence and Karin was starting to look no better off than her twin. Ichigo could only hope that after a few days of rest they might come back around to their normal selves, but he was terrified that they wouldn't ever be completely normal again.

None of them noticed until they reached the forested path leading to the Kureha Shrine that the moon had finally set and the edges of the sky were turning pink and orange. Karin had relinquished his hand when she noticed the tugging on his arm was making him flinch and had taken Yuzu off his other arm, silently walking hand in hand with her equally quiet twin. They had all thoroughly exhausted every last fiber of their being – physically, mentally, and emotionally – but a kind of peach was beginning to settle over them.

The sun was rising, they were no longer being chased by demons, and if Ichio wasn't mistaken that faint but steady pulse of reiatsu he felt up ahead was...

"Sorry for making you go on without me." Rukia stood at the base of the stone steps. A fresh set of clean bandages were wrapped tightly around her torso, the top part of her dress having been torn away almost completely with how shredded and blood-soaked it must have been, and her bag sat at her feet. She looked unsteady on her feet and haggard, but she was alive, awake, and breathing.

"Rukia?" He muttered, not quite believing he wasn't hallucinating.

"I thought there might be some opposition when you returned, so I already unlocked the seal," she added before glancing skyward. "It doesn't look like there's anything to worry about now. We can leave any time."

Ichigo couldn't quite help himself. She'd been very near to death when he'd left her behind and he'd been expecting to (and hoping against) find her unconscious or worse when he came back. He staggered forward and Rukia turned away slightly, expecting him to walk past and start up the steps. Instead, he collapsed onto her shoulder in something as close to a hug as he could manage while his arms felt like half-frozen jelly.

Rukia stumbled under his weight slightly, adjusting her stance and gripping his shoulders. She initially mistook the gesture as his legs simply giving out and was moving to support him so they could start heading up the steps to the shrine. He made it more clear by fighting against the movement and digging his chin into her bare shoulder slightly. He didn't realize how cold he was until he leaned against the petite shinigami and felt the tingling warmth from her skin defrost him slightly. He made the effort to give her a proper hug in the hopes of thawing out his frozen arms.

Rukia jolted slightly in his grip. "You're freezing!"

"You're warm," he muttered in his fatigue induced, brain addled state. He let his eyes slide shut and probably could have fallen asleep right then and there if he let himself. "And if you're going to apologize for something, apologize for almost getting yourself killed," he grumbled, though he couldn't quite work up enough energy to sound even remotely angry. "Idiot," he added for good measure.

Rukia opened her mouth to form a response but was interrupted when Yuzu burrowed into her side. "Rukia-nee, I'm so glad you're okay!" She cried. The shinigami was befuddled for a moment before she wrapped her arm around the girls shoulders. "I'm sorry! I'm really sorry! I was so worried! I thought you were dead! I tried to stop her – I really did – but I couldn't!"

"I-I'm fine, Yuzu," Rukia stammered in her confusion. "You don't have to apologize for anything."

Karin seemed to understand and gently ruffled her twin sister's hair. "It wasn't your fault, Yuzu. You didn't do anything wrong." Yuzu quickly turned to cling on to her sister instead, blubbering out more apologies while Karin gently patted her head and muttered reassurances.

Rukia allowed them all a few minutes of rest before she spoke up. "We should get moving. We still have a long way to go, and we can rest when we get back to the camp." She started to move away from Ichigo and he whined slightly at the loss of warmth and a head rest before trying to pull her back. She elbowed him in the gut.

"Grumpy," he grumbled at her, rubbing his sore stomach.

Rukia rolled her eyes at him, swinging her back over her shoulders before offering her arm as support to Ichigo while taking Yuzu's hand in the other. Karin stood to the other side of Yuzu with her arm around her shoulders. It was slow going, but with all of them supporting each other they managed to make it to the top of the steps and into the Kureha Shrine. Ichigo was hesitant to go through the exit as it led down into another cave, but there wasn't much choice. Even though the spirits were all gone, the barrier had not faded. This was still the only way they could leave.

Fortunately, it wasn't long until the dark, narrow cave gave way to daylight and a dirt path overlooking a forested ravine that both Yuzu and Karin recognized as the one that Sae had fallen into. They stopped for a few minutes to rest until, oddly enough, a bird swooped down to perch on Ichigo's head. It had a familiar patch of red cloth dangling from its beak.

The bird spoke. "Rukia-sama! I have recovered your glove, pyon!"

In a very different situation, they might have laughed.

Apart from Chappy's inane chattering, they were silent throughout the brief trip back to their campsite. Once they had, Rukia carefully removed Chappy from the bird with her glove. It squawked at her angrily before flapping away and she deposited the soul candy into her bag. Karin and Yuzu both collapsed on the ground despondently and drifted off before they were even fully settled. They all would have preferred to rest in the familiarity of the Kurosaki house, but it was still a long hike, a bus ride, and a few blocks away. None of them had the energy to spare for the trip.

Fortunately everything at their campsite was exactly as they left it, as though no time had passed at all. According to Chappy, only a few hours had gone by between the soul candy being mistakenly swallowed by a bird and her finding them sitting on a path overlooking the ravine. Rukia helped Ichigo move his sleeping sisters into the tent and tuck them into their sleeping bags. While he starting laying out the spare bedroll she ducked behind a tree to change into a spare dress that wasn't torn to ribbons. Being roughly mid-afternoon it hadn't even occurred to her to change into her pajamas even though she was planning on collapsing the second everything had been taken care of.

When she headed back out into the clearing, her phone was out and she was preparing to put the call in to Soul Society when Ichigo stopped her.

"Get some sleep, first," he said, pushing her hand down. She glanced down at her phone, hovering in indecision before eventually putting it away. None of them would get _any_ rest if she called now, and it wouldn't hurt to wait a few hours.

Ichigo and Rukia spent the next few minute arguing over who would take the bedroll ("Stop calling me fragile, damn it!" "The ground is fine, just give me back my blanket!") and the matter wasn't settled until they heard a whimpering cry from inside the tent. The argument was quickly dropped as they rushed inside, finding both twins thrashing and crying in their sleep. In the end, the bedroll went unused and both shinigami ended up sleeping in the cramped tent with Yuzu and Karin tucked in between them.

They didn't wake up until well after dawn the next day, and even after nearly twelve hours of sleep the twins still looked exhausted. Ichigo and Rukia were both still stiff and sore from their injuries, and their heads were still heavy from sleep deprivation, but neither felt nearly as exhausted as when they had first fallen asleep. Another twelve hours of unconsciousness still sounded like a good idea, but they at least had enough energy now to function.

Rukia spent some of her restored reiatsu healing the bruises on Yuzu and Karin's necks and Ichigo quietly mumbled something about getting everything packed up. She sat with the twin girls by the river while he did so, worried about how quiet and tired they still were. She had healed all of the physical wounds she could find, but kidou could do nothing about any mental scarring.

After several minutes, she realized she still had a call to make and flipped open her phone. She paused momentarily, staring at the screen with her thumb hovering over the send button. She glanced back towards Yuzu and Karin and frowned slightly. This could wait another minute. There was something else that needed to be taken care of first.

Rukia approached Ichigo and he paused to look at her, silent questioning in his eyes at the serious expression on her face. She had a device in her hands that he hadn't seen in a while, similar to the duck-faced soul candy dispenser she had bought for him from Urahara, what seemed like a few lifetimes ago. She didn't say anything, but her intent was obvious and she was looking to him for permission.

Ichigo glanced at his quiet sisters, both of them slumped together with dark circles under their eyes and the faintest of tremors running through them.

"Will it even work on them?"

"It will. This version is very potent."

"Do it." Rukia nodded and turned away.

Ichigo let out a deep breath he didn't realize he'd been holding and resumed packing up the last of their camp. If it was up to him, he'd have preferred that Yuzu and Karin had never had to go through all of that in the first place. Using the memory modifier to make them forget any of it ever happened was the second best option.

The twins looked up as Rukia approached, eyes dead and empty, before she clicked a button and a cloud of smoke exploded outward. By the time it had cleared, Yuzu and Karin had nodded back off to sleep. This way they would probably think whatever strange memory that had replaced the one of their time spent in the village had been nothing more than a dream. It would be hard to explain away the day they had lost sleeping, but they would have to manage somehow.

Ichigo finished packing everything up and moved to sit with his sisters while he waited for them to wake up. Rukia contacted Soul Society, though she had moved to the other side of the clearing to avoid disturbing the twin girls and he couldn't hear anything that was being said. It gave him time to think about what had happened back in the village and he frowned.

He didn't know what it was she had done, but he was sure it was Karin who'd wiped out all of those veiled priests in the underground cavern with that weird light. It made him wonder if she might have the same kind of powers that he did. She _had_ always been able to see ghosts just as he had, but then again his powers hadn't awoken until Rukia had inadvertently activated them and even then he couldn't do anything special until he took his Shinigami form.

Most troubling was the idea that – if that kind of power was inside of Karin – it might mean she would have to start fighting one day. The thought of his younger sister having to take on those towering behemoths he had to fight nearly every day made his stomach turn. But she would have to, wouldn't she? Strong powers drew hollows like blood drew sharks, and hers would be even stronger if it had awakened somehow. He knew Karin was a strong person – she more than proved that yesterday – but the idea of it still made him anxious.

Ichigo's thoughts were interrupted when Rukia rejoined them, settling herself against one of the flat boulders lining the river and smoothing her wrinkled skirt over her legs. "What did they have to say?" Ichigo asked, keeping his voice just above a murmur.

"They'll be sending the kidou corps to dismantle the barrier, and some of the shinigami from the R & D division are coming to investigate the phenomenon. We have an hour or so before they'll be here. We should be gone before then."

When Ichigo cocked an eyebrow at her, she added, "I omitted a few details." Rukia glanced towards the sleeping twins before continuing. "I had a feeling the twelfth division would be sent, and that being the case... Karin and Yuzu shouldn't be involved." He didn't care to ask or know what she suspected the research and development team of a morally ambiguous system would be willing to do to his sisters just to glean a bit of information.

"They're not making you wait here?" He asked instead, a little relieved she wouldn't have to be sent straight back in after they fought so hard to escape.

Rukia shook her head. "I thought they might, but with the situation back in Karakura they would rather have me back at my post. I wasn't really supposed to leave it in the first place."

Ichigo scowled slightly. "You aren't going to get in trouble for this, are you?"

"I'll make something up," she reassured him with a smirk.

"Ichi-nii?"

Ichigo started slightly. He hadn't noticed that Karin had begun to stir until she had spoken up. Even though she couldn't have been out for more than ten minutes, she looked much more well-rested than before. Her eyes were clearer and her voice was stronger, though she looked a little confused and something akin to suspicion was creeping into her expression.

She had mentioned back in the village that she already knew a few things about him being a shinigami, didn't she? Ichigo paled slightly. "Y-yeah? What is it?"

"Why is everything all packed up again? We just got here a few hours ago."

Oh. Right. That would seem odd to her, wouldn't it? "Ah, well..." He scratched at the back of his head, his mind scrambling for an answer that sounded even remotely believable but drawing a complete blank.

"We're leaving already?" Yuzu chimed in, wiping the sleep out of her eyes.

"Yeah, because, uh... well..."

She squinted slightly and frowned. "How long have we been asleep?" He could practically read the thought process on their faces. It was mid-day when they'd first arrived, and now it was just after dawn. And now they were probably realizing they couldn't remember going to sleep in the first place. Even telling them they'd both slept through the entire day and night wouldn't have been all too convincing. They knew better than to assume Ichigo would just leave them out by the river while they slept rather then take them back to the tent, and he didn't have a good excuse as to why he would bring them back out again in the morning.

Rukia was quick to jump into the conversation, all fake smiles and sparkles. "Oh, I'm afraid we have to leave early because of me." She quickly held a handkerchief to her face as something Ichigo thought was _supposed_ to be nausea crossed her face. "I started feeling ill a short while ago, I think I might -"

"Food poisoning." Ichigo interrupted quickly. It wouldn't help Rukia's story any if they went back to the clinic and Isshin – who would probably insist on a check-up – found nothing wrong with her. Food poisoning was a little easier to fake.

"Ah, yes," Rukia stuttered slightly from having her lie derailed. "That's right. Kurosaki-kun believes that my food was somehow poisoned." Ichigo nearly slapped his forehead in exasperation. But her excuse actually gave him a solid reason for the day they missed.

"I thought you were both sick, too, sleeping all day and night," he added in a rushed voice that didn't sound the least bit believable. "We were... we were going to head back while you were still asleep so I packed everything up and then you woke up just now so... um..." He stumbled over the lie slightly before a question of genuine concern came to mind. "Are you both feeling all right?"

Karin and Yuzu both blinked at him owlishly before glancing over at each other in confusion over the rushed explanation. "Um... I feel all right, Ichi-nii," Yuzu was the first to answer and Karin nodded slowly. He wasn't particularly fond of the suspicion creeping into her expression.

"I told Kurosaki-kun you were probably just tired!" Rukia quickly interjected. "I offered to leave by myself so I wouldn't be any trouble to you, but he seemed very insistent. I still could, of course, since we know you're feeling better."

As unbelievable as it was, Yuzu bought into the act. "It's not any trouble at all, Rukia-nee! If you're feeling ill, you shouldn't go back on your own! We'll go with you, we don't mind, right Karin-chan?"

Karin looked much less convinced, but the upside to her knowing a little about his shinigami duties meant she was more likely to draw her own conclusions than to ask questions. "Yeah, it's fine," she responded dryly.

They hiked back through the forest to the bus stop, Rukia feigning stomach pains the whole way – though she had yet to heal the scratches that decorated her torso, so it wasn't entirely an act – and Ichigo was never happier to see civilization in his life. Yuzu and Karin chatted quietly most of the way back, though Ichigo and Rukia stayed silent unless either of the twins called for their attention. His thoughts had wandered back to Karin's potentially awakening powers. Her thoughts had strayed from the teams sent in to investigate the village, to the village itself, and then to what she had seen there.

Rukia, of course, had been nothing but sickeningly cheerful when they'd walked back into the Kurosaki clinic, gushing about how it was so wonderful to spend time with the Kurosaki siblings and dab at a fake tear while she remarked how much she felt like a member of the family. Which, of course, left Isshin a weeping ball of mush kneeling in front of the poster of his late wife. With the excuse of sleeping off her fake food poisoning, she quietly excused herself while Yuzu comforted her teary-eyed father and Karin began digging through the cupboards for a snack. As much as Ichigo wanted to drop into unconsciousness for the next year or so, he couldn't help but linger a few moments and watch his family, together, whole and happy for the moment and let a tiny smile ghost over his lips.

When Yuzu started making lunch and Karin went to help their father out in the clinic, Ichigo headed upstairs to rest until the food was ready. As tired as he still was, he was also famished and really looking forward to one of his sister's home cooked meals. He'd only just gotten settled on his bed when he heard a shuffling noise inside his closet and he scowled in irritation. Kon must have been rummaging around in his things again... except he hadn't done that in a long time, and he'd started staying in the twin's room ever since Rukia had officially moved in... His scowl softened in realization.

It hurt much more than it should have.

Emotional conditioning had been key to Rukia's Shinigami training, even more so when she had been adopted into the Kuchiki family. A clouded heart led to clouded judgment which inevitably led to fatal mistakes. Pushing everything down was paramount in battle, emotions could be dealt with later in private when the dust had settled and the danger had passed. Seeing her parents and Hisana had hit Rukia far harder than she cared to admit, and now that they were safely out of the demon-infested village and she had nothing else to throw her energy into or distract her, the Shinigami found herself waist deep in her repressed misery.

Unfortunately, the Kurosaki Clinic offered very few private places for her to sit by herself and think for a while without being intruded upon. So when she'd excused herself and headed upstairs, she didn't go to the room she shared with Karin and Yuzu. She instead climbed into Ichigo's closet and curled up in the dark.

"You're acting childish," she scolded herself in a soft murmur, hugging her knees to her chest. The bedding was still lying out as she had left it back when Ichigo was only supposed to be a temporary replacement and she had nowhere else to stay. She suspected he'd only left it that way out of laziness – if the collection of dust bunnies and the slightly musty smell of the unwashed blankets meant anything – but she was grateful for it now.

It didn't make sense, she told herself, to feel this way about people she'd been much too young to even remember. She never knew her parents, and all she'd known about her older sister was the bits and pieces she was able to glean from Byakuya from time to time. It was terrible the way they died, and what had happened to them was unfair, but she had no real attachments to any of them. Yet, no matter how she tried to reason with herself...

A tear slipped out and she let it trail down her cheek and soak into the lumpy pillow beneath her. She realized it wasn't that she was mourning their passing, or the way they had died. She mourned the realization that at some point in her life she'd had such strong, wonderful people for parents and such a kind older sister, but she'd never been given the chance to know any of them. She mourned – not for the first time – that she didn't have a family, but now knowing what family she _might_ have had made it all the more bitter.

She'd once felt resentful towards Hisana for abandoning her even though she could understand what a hardship it would be to take care of a baby all by herself while living in the harshest district in Soul Society. Now that she _really_ understood her sister's motives, she felt guilty. Her sister didn't abandon her because she thought of her as a burden; she thought of herself as a failure and truly believed Rukia would be better off without her.

Not for the first time, she wished she could have known Hisana when she was still alive.

"I won't ask." Ichigo's voice startled Rukia into a stiff sitting position. She hastily brushed away the tears and softly cleared her throat before what he said registered.

Ichigo had waited outside his closet for several minutes, debating on what to say or do, or if he should do anything at all. But when he thought back to the days he spent wandering the river bank searching for his dead mother and then the fight against the hollow that had killed her, the answer came to him. He left the door shut – opening it now would be an intrusion – and instead spoke to her from the other side.

"I won't ask," he said again when he heard her fall silent. "But when you're ready, if you need to talk... talk to me." It was the same words she'd said to him about his mother, and they had made him feel relieved. He hoped they would do the same for her now.

After several moments of silence, he'd begun to assume he wouldn't get a response and was planning to leave and give her some space. He hadn't really expected the closet door to slide open, and he hadn't been expecting Rukia's misery to be so clearly painted on her face when she ordinarily put so much effort into hiding everything. He held her gaze, waiting patiently for her to speak, but words seemed to fail her.

Instead she climbed out of his closet and tipped forward slightly to rest her head on his chest. She didn't cling on to him or start sobbing against his shirt. She merely leaned against him as if reassuring herself of his presence. After a few seconds of indecision, Ichigo loosely wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

"Thank you, Ichigo," she murmured.

"Yeah."

Naturally Isshin chose that exact moment to burst into the room.

Naturally it ended with Ichigo kicking his father down the stairs, who went running to his late wife's memorial poster in tears of joy. For the time being, everything was back to normal.

_Sister..._

_I'm sorry,_

_I couldn't save you..._

_Please..._

_forgive me..._

_Hisana Tsuchihara_

A/N: Isshin just ruins everything, doesn't he?

Phew, it took a long, _long_, time but we are finally here! Too many years, 130 pages, a few rough patches, but all in all it was a heck of a ride and I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did. This story was actually a tremendous hurdle for me because it's easily the longest one I've ever written, and it was the first (long) story I've _ever_ completed.

As far as 'The Village: Clear Data' is concerned, I may add a few more omakes if any come to mind, but I think for the most part this is it for me fanfiction-wise. I still have a few ideas for other stories kicking around in my head, but as it is right now (with my 3D modeling and animation work starting to pick up and with the regular fiction writing I want to spend more time on) this may very well end up being my last fanfic. I really hope it was worth the wait guys, and I hope I can see you on fictionpress at some point when I finally get up the guts to post my original fiction!


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